41 



Press to their standard, hither all repair, 

 And hurry through the woods, with hasty step 

 Rustling and full of hope ; now driven on heaps 

 They push, they strive, while from his kennel sneaks 

 The conscious villain." 



Somerville. 



"Yoi him wind there, Chauntress! good bitch," cries the 

 Laird, as they hunted it up the river. A little below 

 Auchincruive the music increased, and away they went a 

 burster, giving the field a sharp spin across the meadows. 

 They then crossed the water — Colonel Campbell dashing in 

 after them. It was a very pretty sight to see them carrying 

 the scent over — speaking to it all the time. Going up the 

 other side, the hounds feathered about a drain which the 

 otter must have tried, but finding it shut, went on, as they 

 picked up the scent over the river again, and some very- 

 pretty hunting took place through the beautiful policies of 

 Auchincruive, the pace gradually increasing, it being a case 

 of "bellows to mend" with some of the fat 'uns. "Hark! 

 Sandy has viewed him," cries Moreton, and away we went 

 helter-skelter down through a potato field, and, oh ye gods, 

 what a crash there was. They had him in the water, but he 

 slipped out. "Hoick, forward!" away again. "How well that 

 young dog, Havelock, is working to-day," says Col. Campbell. 

 "Have at him, Nigger, old boy," cries the Laird to his 

 favourite hound. The whole pack were now rushing frantic 

 for blood, but down the otter went again into a large and deep 

 pool, near Gadgirth, only showing his snout above water now 

 and then when he came up for air. " Try and stop him from 

 going down the water," cries the Master, " and we must kill 

 him," and in one moment down go Ballimore and Glendaruel 

 into the pool to head him if he tries back. "Take care, 

 Sandy," says the Colonel, as the huntsman in his excitement 

 was very near going plump into a big pool, " we can't afford 

 to lose a good man !" There was a little slow hunting here, 

 as, from the size of the pool, it was difficult to force him to 

 land. All of a sudden, a " View, hollo !" from the Laird 

 announced that he had bolted from underneath some rocks 



