STAG HUNTING v. FOX HUNTING 217 



there is a lameness about it — an artificial character not 

 quite in accordance with the true spirit of a sportsman. 

 Keeping an animal in a semi-domesticated state, con- 

 veying him to the place of meeting in a cart to be en- 

 larged and hunted by hounds, is certainly not in ac- 

 cordance with my views of legitimate sport. Hunting 

 an animal of such a size that he can constantly be 

 viewed detracts vastly from the association of ideas 

 connected with the sagacity of the hound. In the little 

 experience I have had I have never seen hounds when 

 following the stag run together, which failing is con- 

 firmed by the acknowledgment of all those with whom 

 I have conversed, and who are well able to form an 

 opinion. The perfection of hunting, in the estimation 

 of one accustomed to fox-hunting, is certainly lost 

 when the pack do not run together and carry a good 

 head. The stratagems of the fox and also of the hare 

 are wonderful, and occasion a vast deal of excitement, 

 besides the talent of the huntsman which they call in 

 requisition, as well as the instinctive faculties of the 

 hounds. The stag resorts to few subterfuges, with the 

 exception of the unavailing one of running through a 

 herd of his own species if he has an opportunity, and, 

 when distressed, provokingly taking soil — the most ob- 

 jectionable feature in a run, and an unsatisfactory 

 termination of a day's sport, which Somerville thus 

 describes : 



" He vents the cooling stream, and up the breeze 

 Urges his course with eager violence ; 

 Then takes the soil, and plunges in the flood 

 Precipitant ; down the mid stream he wafts 

 Along, till (like a ship distress'd, that runs 

 Into some winding creek) close to the verge 

 Of a small island, for his weary feet 

 Sure anchorage he finds; there skulks immers'd 

 His nose alone above the wave draws in 

 The vital air; all else beneath the flood 

 Conceal'd and lost, deceives each prying eye 

 Of man or brute." 



