VARIETY IN HUNTING COaNTRIES 215 



or two of the scent that maddens them, for a note 

 goes up also from among them on occasions. For 

 more than a quarter of a mile this queer and most 

 interesting work continues, till the wall leads us into 

 a fir wood, where there is strong covert of the sort 

 described before under the trees. This wood also 

 crowns a hill, but a low one, and the savage cry that 

 goes up from among the trees makes us press to the 

 far side for a view. See, " there he goes ! " down by 

 the far side of the rocks ! But these woods are full 

 of foxes ; is he our hunted one ? It is not easy to 

 decide, for the heather hides his brush and half his 

 body ; but here come the hounds, their hackles erect 

 from poll to shoulder like the mane of a butcher's 

 cob. Yes ! I think we may bet on that vanishing 

 brown shape below being their rightful quarry. In 

 the open the heather carries a rare scent, and faint 

 though that of a sinking fox may be, they swoop 

 down after him, but ere they have gone a mile are 

 springing frantically about below on the rough ground, 

 where they have stopped. " Whoop ! " He's in here, 

 in a hole among the rocks. " Whoo-whoop ! " It was 

 an hour and thirty-five minutes, and has seemed half 

 a lifetime. No check from find to finish, and the 

 stranger in a wondering sort of way says, " Gad ! I 

 believe it's about the best hunt I ever saw." But 

 what's this ? " Tally ho ! Tally ho ! " Out jumps the 

 fox from the shallow cleft in which he had taken 

 refuge, and once more goes for the fir wood up on 

 the hill above us — a bad move, poor fellow ! For 

 straggling hounds above us, attracted by the noise, 

 come leaping down and meet him ; he turns, and the 



