EARTH STOPPING, ARTIFICIAI, EARTHS, &c. 



he went for the summit of the mountain. Off 

 flew the pack in pursuit, to an accompaniment of 

 language more forcible than polite by the members 

 of the small ' ' field " left standing helplessly round 

 the earth. The fox eventually beat hounds, but 

 we luckily were able to stop them and get them 

 home to kennels that night. 



On the fells during the daytime a hunted fox 

 usually makes his way out to the high tops and 

 remains in their vicinity as long as he is able. 

 Should hounds however get on to a fox at dusk, 

 and continue to run far into the night, their 

 quarry usually adopts different tactics, often 

 sticking to the low ground altogether, and running 

 through or close past farm yards and human 

 habitations which he would shun in daylight unless 

 very hard pressed. At night too, many foxes 

 are afoot ; thus hounds are liable to divide. 

 In certain parts of America it is customary to 

 hunt at night, the field seeing little of the actual 

 chase, the cry of the hounds being their chief 

 reward for an all-night vigil. 



With regard to the weights of foxes, these 

 differ considerably in various parts of the coun- 

 try. Roughly speaking the average dog fox 

 weighs about 15 lb., and the vixen 13^ lb. It is 

 4uite safe to say that nowadays there are far 

 more foxes under than over 16 lb. The heaviest 

 fox I have a record of, killed by hounds, was one 

 of 231b, which was run into by the Ullswater on 

 Cross Fell. This fox measured 4ft. 4in. from tip 

 of nose to end of brush, about 4in. of the latter 

 being white. On the Lakeland fells weights of 

 i81b. and iglb. are not uncommon, and this 

 season 1921-22 I handled a 19^ lb. fox killed by a 

 fell pack. Extra heavy foxes are occasionally 

 accounted for in the Midlands. When Frank 



III 



