35 o HUNTING PRELIMINARIES. 



pointers will not remain keen, if the man who shoots over 

 them keeps continually missing. It is true that staghounds 

 very seldom get blood ; but they have comparatively speaking 

 no difficulties to daunt and dispirit them. Not for them is 

 the dusty scentless fallow, or the almost impenetrable stick 

 or gorse covert, and they always have a scent. Yet for all 

 that, we often hear of deer being ' left out.' When hounds 

 mark a fox to ground, they should be made as much of, as 



Fig. 226. Topped hedge, 6 ft. high. 



if they had killed him. They will then go home satisfied with 

 knowing where they have left him. If this is not done, the 

 pack will soon leave off troubling themselves to mark any of 

 their foxes to ground and will come away, much in the same 

 fashion that a London pug dog will do, when his hunted 

 cat has disappeared down an area. Sometimes it is imperative 

 in the early stages of hound tuition, to dig out a fox and give 

 him to them, in order to teach them to mark. 



" The most useful way in which hounds can get blood is, 

 when it is practicable, to open a drain so far that they can 



