60 FOX-HUNTING 



after them, you will be encouraging a habit of 

 running dog, which at some critical moment may 

 lose you your fox. Of course we do not want 

 to go to the other extreme, and have a lot of 

 noisy brutes that throw their tongues without a 

 scent. The mute hound, if he is a leader of the 

 pack, will soon have many disciples. Muteness 

 creates jealousy, and prevents a pack from work- 

 ing together for the common good. If you are 

 going to allow one hound to hunt a fox by him- 

 self, you had better leave the remainder at home, 

 but I should prefer to leave the one in the kennel 

 or hang him, however good a nose he might 

 have. When the others know that there is a 

 hound who is fast, and who may at any moment 

 go off with the scent without letting them know, 

 they will be continually looking about with their 

 heads in the air, instead of hunting as they 

 should ; whereas if they have confidence in each 

 other, they will all be busy until the moment 

 when a comrade's note brings them flying to his 

 side. You will generally find that a pack that 

 is short of tongue straggle and run in a string. 

 A hound's eyesight is only moderate, but his 

 hearing is very keen. How then is a hound to 



