80 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



It was a very beautiful daj' and the ride over the plains was 

 sometliing never to be forgotten. 



The hounds were carried in a wagon especially built for the 

 purpose, a pair of white coach horses to draw it, and a smartly 

 dressed driver on the box to manage them. 



Arriving on the plains, the Master begins riding more slowly 

 while the hound wagon and huntsman go on some forty to 

 eighty rods in advance. This hound wagon is kept on the low 

 land as much as possible while the huntsman rides to the eleva- 

 tions, anywhere within half a mile of the hounds. 



There are holes in the top of the hound wagon through wliich 

 hounds may put their heads and thus keep a constant eye on 

 the movements of the huntsman. 



The driver operates the opening of the door in the back end 

 of the wagon which instantly liberates the hounds, whenever 

 the huntsman lifts his hat as a signal, wliich he does only after 

 he has gotten as close up to the game as possible. 



The tactics he uses in getting up to the game consist in 

 riding about liim in a circular way as if riding past but all 

 the time he is shortening the circle. The curiosity or stupidity 

 of the coyote enables the huntsman thus to come witloin forty 

 or eighty yards, when at the first symptoms of liis taking to 

 run the huntsman hfts his hat and rides after tlie coyote. The 

 hounds rush on to the huntsman, Avho is usually able to lead 

 them to a view of the game, and the chase is on. Seeing the 

 huntsman lift his hat is a signal, also, for the riders to race. A 

 coyote usually runs in a circle at first, unless pressed too hard. 

 The riders are generally able by riding to the right or left, 

 as indicated by the direction the huntsman is taking, to come 

 into the run behind the hounds. 



On tliis open plain and in the clear transparent air the 

 chase is nearly always in full view from start to finish. Grey- 

 hounds, as everyone familiar with the breed knows, can follow 

 only as long as they can keep their game in view. 



