FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



front of hounds. Scent is then failing, and 

 hounds know it, and try their hardest to over- 

 haul their fox; but if the latter is constantly 

 headed, confusion only becomes worse confounded, 

 and the fox manages to run hounds out of scent 

 and makes his escape. 



Those people who are so fond of halloing just 

 because "they can't help it" should try to 

 remember what the hounds are there for. It is 

 the keen noses of the pack which enable them to 

 hunt by scent, and directly they are interfered 

 with they cannot settle to it again as they did at 

 first. Without canine assistance it is impossible 

 to hunt, therefore the less hounds are afEected by 

 outside influences the better. When they do 

 require help, their huntsman is there to give it 

 to them, and he is the only one, or should be the 

 only one, privileged to do so. Even the hunts- 

 man may allow excitement to get the better of 

 him at times, especially if he is an amateur keen 

 on his job. For instance, after a fast run, hounds 

 and fox are in the same field. The huntsman — 

 from his superior height in the saddle — sees his 

 fox, and in the exuberance of the moment 

 attempts to give hounds a view by cheering them 

 and getting their heads up. If the field is a 

 large one and hounds are close on their fox, they 

 perhaps view him and after a sharp course roll 

 him over. So far so good, but what is more 

 likely to happen is that hounds get their heads up, 

 fail to see or barely see their fox before he pops 

 through the fence, up or down which he is quite 

 likely to turn sharply. In their excitement 

 hounds flash half way across the next field, and 

 by the time they hit off the line again, the tense 

 thread is broken, and scent fails altogether. It 

 should always be remembered in the first place, 



232 



