NOTES BY THE WAY. 161 



sharp enough to detect the fragments. . Even the fish 

 leave a trail in the water, and it is said the otter will 

 pursue them by it. The birds make a track in the 

 air, only their enemies hunt by sight rather than by 

 scent. The fox baffles the hound most upon a hard 

 crust of frozen snow ; the scent will not hold to the 

 smooth, bead-like granules. 



Judged by the eye alone, the fox is the lightest 

 and most buoyant creature that runs. His soft 

 wrapping of fur conceals the muscular play and 

 effort that is so obvious in the hound that pursues 

 him, and he comes bounding along precisely as if 

 blown by a gentle wind. His massive tail is carried 

 as if it floated upon the air by its own lightness. 



The hound is not remarkable for his fleetness, but 

 how he will hang ! often running late into the 

 night and sometimes till morning, from ridge to 

 ridge, from peak to peak ; now on the mountain, now 

 crossing the valley, now playing about a large slope 

 of uplying pasture fields. At times the fox has a 

 pretty well-defined orbit, and the hunter knows 

 where to intercept him. Again he leads off like a 

 comet, quite beyond the system of hills and ridges 

 upon which he was started, and his return is entirely 

 a matter of conjecture, but if the day be not more 

 than half spent, the chances are that the fox will be 

 back before night, though the sportsman's patience 

 seldom holds out that long. 



The hound is a most interesting dog. How solemn 

 and long-visaged he is how peaceful and well-dis- 

 11 



