EFFECTS OF FPIYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG. 187 



you are. Kill a fox who won't run as soon as 

 you can; your hounds will have the benefit of him, 

 and so will you, for you can then take a willing 

 and an able pack of hounds elsewhere to find a 

 better. 



When hunting my hounds, the fox that used to 

 trouble me most was a cunning old customer, 

 who, from sheer knowledge of men who had pre- 

 ceded me in the country, or from having had a very 

 late and heavy supper, did not choose to run, and 

 at the same time kept his very able wits about him. 

 He turned so short, that he contrived to be always 

 close behind the pack, and following them, I have 

 heard a hound Avho chanced, at some turn, to have got 

 behind the pack, view and yell with eager haste at 

 such a fox as this, and in a moment more I have 

 no doubt but that the fox was behind the hound, 

 who was expecting and looking for him in his front. 

 In large and heavy woodlands, such as some of tlie 

 Bedfordshire woods were, the sort of fox I am now 

 reverting to would seldom leave the quarter where 

 he had already dodged the hounds, and so foiled it 

 that there was not a tell-tale line of scent to brino- 

 them up to him. A fox such as this affords no 

 going across country, no amusement to the field of 



