THE PACK. 271 



these hounds are very keen, and when a stag is 

 running the water will dash with the utmost reckless- 

 ness through a mass of horses crowded in a narrow 

 path ; but the majority of cases might be saved by 

 the exercise of a little care on the part of riders. 

 Injuries sustained from stags at bay incapacitate and 

 occasionally even kill hounds almost every year, 

 heart weakness accounts for some — poor old Tele- 

 gram, who led the pack for several seasons, dropped 

 dead in his tracks when coursing a beaten hind 

 in view across the open — but injuries to the feet 

 resulting in "toes down," is probably the most 

 frequent cause of drafting. A kill up and down the 

 water close to a village is generally productive of 

 much trouble, since the villagers always throw all 

 their broken crockery into the stream, and if the water 

 is low hounds' feet get cut to pieces. In excep- 

 tionally dry seasons sore feet give a certain amount 

 of temporary trouble, but the pack is never allowed 

 to get really out of condition, and Tucker puts in 

 such an amount of work, not only on the moor but 

 on the roads in the summer, that the trouble from 

 this cause is reduced to a minimum. Many hours 

 are spent in exercise on the moor for the education 

 of the young entry, particularly in the matter of 

 sheep. During the greater part of the staghunting 

 season the moor is covered with sheep which scatter 

 themselves about among the bracken and all sorts 

 of unlikely places. Jumping up right under hounds' 

 noses and scouring away with almost the speed of a 



