RECOVERING A LOST SCENT 93 



general consequence of which is, you mistake the place, and are obliged to 

 return to the man for better information. Depend upon it, the less you 

 hurry on this occasion, the more time you save ; and wherever the fox was 

 seen for a certainty, whether near or distant, that will not only be the surest, 

 but also the best, place to take the scent ; and, besides the certainty of going 

 right, you probably will get on faster than you would by any other means. 



That halloos are not always to be depended on, will be sufficiently 

 evinced by the following instances : 



My hounds being at a long fault, a fellow halloo'd to them from the 

 top of a rick at some distance off. The huntsman, as you may believe, 

 stuck spurs to his horse, halloo'd till he was almost hoarse, and got to the 

 man as quickly as he could : the man still kept hallooing ; and, as the 

 hounds got near him, ' Here," 1 said he ' here here the fox is gone.' ' Is he 

 far before us ? ' cried the huntsman. ' How long ago was it that you saw 

 him ? ' ' No, master, I have not seen him ; but / smelt him here this morn- 

 ing, when I came to serve my sheep.' 



Another instance was this : We were trying with some deer-hounds 

 for an out-lying stag, when we saw a fellow running towards us in his shirt : 

 we immediately concluded that we should hear some news of the stag, and 

 set out joyfully to meet him. Our first question was, If he had seen the 

 stag ? ' No, Sir, I have not seen him, but my wife dreamt as how she saw 

 him t'other night.' 



Once a man halloo'd us back a mile, only to tell us that we were right 

 before, and we lost the fox by it. 



A gentleman, seeing his hounds at fault rode up to a man at plough, 

 and with great eagerness asked him, If he had seen the fox. ' The fox, 



Sir ? ' ' Yes, d n you, the fox ! did you never see a fox ? ' ' Pray, Sir, 



if I may be so bould, what sort of a looking creature may he be ? Has he 

 short ears and a long tail ? ' ' Yes.' ' Why, then, I can assure you, Sir, I 

 have seen no such thing.' 



We are agreed, that hounds ought not to be cast, as long as they are 

 able to hunt ; and though the idea, that a hunted fox never stops, is a very 

 necessary one to a fox-hunter, that he may be active and may lose no time ; 

 yet tired foxes will stop, if you can hold them on ; and I have known them 

 stop, even in wheel-ruts on the open down, and leap up in the midst of the 

 hounds. A tired fox ought not to be given up ; for he is killed sometimes 

 very unexpectedly. If hounds have ever pressed him, he is worth your 

 trouble : perseverance may recover him, and, if recovered, he most prob- 

 ably will be killed ; nor should you despair whilst any scent remains. The 

 business of a huntsman is only difficult when the scent dies quite away ; 

 and it is then that he may show his judgment, when the hounds are no 

 longer able to show theirs. The recovering a lost scent, and getting nearer 

 to the fox by a long cast, requires genius, and is therefore what few hunts- 



