226 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



You try them on. Not a hound will own 

 to the line. The only thing to be done, 

 after you have tried north, south, east, 

 and west of it, is to wait a few moments, 

 filling up your time by making a big cast, 

 making the Field stand in one place as 

 quietly as they can (they will generally talk, 

 and take off the hounds' attention if possible). 

 You try the place again where they originally 

 checked, and nine times out of ten the 



A MORNING VISIT. 



LADY GIFFORDS OLD PARK PACK OF HARRIERS. 



hounds will run " on " with a burst of 

 music. Why ? You know that in all prob- 

 ability this will happen, but has anyone 

 ever been able satisfactorily to explain 

 to you the reason ? 



There are days in a huntsman's life when 

 everything seems to go right, when hounds 

 look to him for help, he gives it, never making 

 a mistake — he casts them just right, and if 

 he lifts hounds they hit it off exactly, and he 

 begins to think he understands scent ; he 

 has been years at his work and certain 

 knowledge is coming to him at last ! It is 

 all going to be plain sailing henceforth. 

 Is it ? Alas, next hunting-day things do 

 not go so easily, and he has to own that 

 scent is still a mystery, and always will be. 

 Would the fascination of hunting be of the 

 absorbing interest it always has been — 



and still is — if the mystery of scent were 

 made clear ? I venture to think not. 



Harriers have a more difficult task, take 

 it all round, than Foxhounds ; the reason 

 being that a hare evidently has less scent 

 than a fox. For example, see Harriers on 

 a day when they have been toiling after a 

 hare with little or no scent, suddenly get on 

 to the line of a fox. A perfect chorus will 

 burst forth, and they can run him strongly 

 and well. Or try 

 them in covert, on 

 a very hot day in 

 spring, when the 

 old dead leaves lie 

 thick upon the 

 ground, dried up 

 and withered ; even 

 then they will hunt 

 a fox quite easily — 

 where a Foxhound 

 will find it difficult 

 to own to the line. 

 This seems to point 

 to the fact that the 

 nose of a Harrier, 

 from being accus- 

 tomed to hunt an 

 animal with a lesser 

 scent, is more sensi- 

 tive, so that he can 

 more easily make 

 good a line under difficult circumstances. 

 It is interesting to note, in watching a 

 pack of hounds working, which individual 

 hounds to rely on in a tight place. Those 

 of the Field who come out to ride and 

 not to hunt, miss so much of interest 

 by being unobservant. The hounds that 

 are to be relied on at all times have the 

 entire confidence of the remainder of the 

 pack ; they quickly acknowledge the right 

 of a few to be leaders. Take, for instance, 

 some period of any ordinary run when they 

 are at fault for a moment. A single hound 

 goes a little apart from the others : you 

 will see his stern waving, his whole body 

 vibrating, but, at present, not a sound. By 

 tins time the remainder of the pack have all 

 been trying hard to pick up the line over 

 various portions of the ground ; the hound 



