THE HUNTED FOX AND HIS WILES 161 



the scene of the disappearance of the last traces of the 

 fugitive. 



Several times I have known his investigations to be 

 successful, and I am sure he would be able to relate 

 very many extraordinary escapes of dead-beaten foxes 

 during his long term of mastership. It certainly is 

 very wonderful, the luck that befriends a sinking fox, 

 and those who affect to disbelieve in the animal's 

 possession of any extraordinary cunning cannot have 

 gone with much interest into the question, " What 

 became of the fox ? " 



I have often read that the hare should be credited 

 with far more cunning than the fox. It may be so, 

 but personally I have never seen this displayed when 

 hunting with harriers — a sport in which I have not 

 indulged for a good many years — for the wiles of a 

 hunted hare, her loops and squattings, her tremendous 

 springs from the squatting-place, all seemed to be 

 tolerably known to the huntsmen, and have often 

 been described, notably by Surtees, who declares that 

 " the manoeuvres of a hunted hare are simply astonish- 

 ing," and in several of his novels gives a description of 

 a hare hunt in which he displays perfect knowledge of 

 a game that, nevertheless, he does not seem to have 

 cared very much about playing, if one may judge by 

 the words he puts in the mouth of John Jorrocks. 



Another writer, as great as Surtees, also expresses 

 a very high opinion of the 'cuteness of the hare, for 

 Whyte-Melville makes Mr. Tilbury Nogo relate that 

 "it is needless to describe the difficulties I had to 

 encounter, or the ignorance I was obliged to conceal, 

 in my first attempts at hunting the wiliest animal of 



Hounds, Gentlemen, Please. 12 



