Fox Hunting in America 25 



for him in Texas. Instead of keeping these in a small en- 

 closure, as is the usual custom abroad, where they hunt the 

 crated stag, these animals, eight or ten of them, are kept in 

 a large-sized field, partly natural forest. Every day a collie 

 dog is taken into this enclosure and gives them all a good chase, 

 the object being to keep them hard and fit for running. They 

 have a small paddock adjoining the one they are in, into which 

 they can jump after they have been chased. They soon learn 

 that this particular enclosure is a harbour of safety and usually 

 return to it of their own accord. 



On a hunting day a stag, instead of being carted and driven 

 to a meet and there "enlarged," is liberated from a shed in the 

 main enclosure and sent away by the collie dog for six or eight 

 miles in any direction he may choose to take. The collie is then 

 called in and after an hour or so the hounds are brought out 

 and are cast into a covert in the most natural way for finding 

 a stag, independent of the known point at which he entered 

 the covert. In case of failure, of course, the huntsman can 

 always lift hounds onto the known line of entrance to the 

 covert. When the hounds pick up the trail and the chase is on 

 the stag leads them a merry gallop for ten or fifteen miles, but 

 when the hounds begin to press him too hard for comfort and 

 he tries one or two streams or ponds of water as a means of 

 throwing them off, it finally occurs to him that there is in the 

 world at least one harbour of safety, i. e., the little paddock 

 adjoining his enforced enclosure and to this he flies with the 

 unerring judgment of a homing pigeon. When he arrives 

 there he finds a place in the high fencing let down for him. A 

 servant is on the lookout to close it after him. The hounds 

 race up to the spot where the stag entered the enclosure and 

 are suitably rewarded with a "worry" of fresh meat, provided for 

 the occasion. The riders who have been able to follow are there 

 to cheer them as they eagerly devour their reward. The chase is 

 over, the day is done, after which the hounds are kenneled, and 



