142 PEPACTON 



the hound for hours afterward. When the boys 

 play "hare and hounds" the hare scatters bits of 

 paper to give a clew to the pursuers, but he scatters 

 himself much more freely if only our sight and scent 

 were 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 pur- 

 sues 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 light- 

 ness. 



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 



