FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



Nets are occasionally used in an attempt to take 

 foxes alive, but in my experience they are prac- 

 tically useless. 



When hunting on the fells, it is usual for some- 

 body to station himself in the vicinity of any 

 well known earth, in order to prevent a run fox 

 from getting in. Although the big hill-foxes are 

 not quite so brazen in the way of facing people as 

 their low-country cousins, they are often very 

 hard to turn from an earth. I have seen a fox 

 get safely to ground almost beneath the feet of the 

 watchers, despite a voUey of whip cracking and 

 halloing. There are days when you do not want 

 a fox to bolt ; and on such occasions he is quite 

 likely to disappoint you by suddenly making his 

 appearance. For instance, hounds may have 

 had a fast hunt on the fells in wild, wintry weather, 

 and after running their fox to ground, the day 

 may become much worse. Perhaps it is late and 

 daylight will soon be gone. Then, if your fox 

 bolts, he may lead hounds a wild chase in the 

 dark, with fresh foxes on the move everywhere, 

 and it will be a sorry looking lot of hounds which 

 appear by ones and twos at the kennels next 

 day. Such an occurrence befell us not long ago. 

 Hounds ran a fox very fast from the low-ground 

 right over the top of one of the highest of the 

 Lakeland mountains, where they put him to 

 ground at the head of a lonely dale. It was a 

 day of terrific wind and biting hail showers, so 

 when we reached the spot, to find hounds marking 

 their fox, we determined the latter should pay the 

 extreme penalty. It was a small and com- 

 paratively simple earth, so the terriers were put 

 in and began to mark their fox at once. Willing 

 hands shifted the rocks and everything seemed 

 couleur de rose, when out shot the fox, and away 



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