SCENT 



his vitality weakens, and scent does likewise. 

 Hounds can tell by some subtle change in the 

 scent that their fox is weakening, and certain 

 members of the pack then push towards the front. 

 At such a time they try very hard to catch him, 

 and therefore it is most important not to halloa 

 or otherwise get their heads up when their beaten 

 fox is just in front of them, for once the thread is 

 broken, they may be quite unable to pick it up 

 again. 



There is no doubt that the fox himself knows 

 a lot about scent. His nose is his chief asset on 

 all his hunting expeditions, and it is quite likely 

 that he may base his actions in front of hounds on 

 the kind of scenting day it happens to be. In 

 the fell-country, it is often possible to watch every 

 movement of a hunted fox for a long distance. 

 If it is a bad or moderate scenting day, he will 

 potter along, frequently stopping to look back, 

 and sometimes he will even lie down. The slower 

 he goes, the less scent he gives off, and the harder 

 work it is for hounds to hold his line. If he 

 hurried when there was no real need for hurry, 

 he would grow warm and give off more scent, 

 whereas a fox never does hurry until he is ab- 

 solutely compelled to. Apropos of this, I take 

 the liberty of quoting a passage from Mr. C. E. 

 Benson's book, " Crag and hound in Lakeland/' 

 he says : 



" Talking of fools and outpost hounds, a fox, for his reputation, 

 is the greatest ass in the animal kingdom. More than once have I 

 known one run itself almost to death, under the impression it was 

 being chased, when the hounds were " barking up quite a different 

 tree." I saw an idiot of this brand blunder right on to a couple of 

 outpost hounds, which promptly slew it, the remainder of the pack 

 the while being seated round a "whoal " three-quarters of a mile 

 oif." 



With regard to the above, I can quite well be- 

 lieve that a fox blimdered on to a couple of out- 



85 



