78 A HUNTING CATECHISM 



successful in this, he must then search the ground 

 carefully till he meets with the signs of a goodly 

 stag, and then locate where he has taken up his 

 abode for the day, and bring the information to 

 the huntsman, that he may know where to rouse 

 a quarry fit to hunt. The tufters next appear 

 upon the scene, a few staunch old hounds that 

 can be trusted, whose business it is to rouse the 

 stag, and force him out of the covert, when the 

 rest of the pack, which has been shut up in a 

 stable not far away, is brought rapidly up, laid 

 upon the scent, and the chase of the stag begins 

 in earnest. 



This sounds all very simple, and occasionally 

 no doubt is so. But there is many a slip in hunt- 

 ing as well as drinking, and long hours may 

 sometimes be passed before the hounds are fleeting 

 over picturesque Exmoor, and your good steed 

 is doing his generous best to carry you up and 

 down hill, through mire and waste, disregarding 

 in the excitement the pricking of that dwarf gorse 

 with which the heather of the Devonshire moors 

 is so plentifully intermingled, while a Avatchful 

 eye is ever kept for signs denoting the where- 

 abouts of a treacherous bog. 



The harbourer's duty is no light one, and he 

 must be well versed in the appearance of the slot, 

 and other signs, not to make a mistake as to the 

 age of the deer he has harboured, or whether it is 

 a hind or a stag. He must not be careless either, 

 and overlook his exit from the covert, thinking 

 all the time the stag is safely lying down within, 

 when he is already miles away in another 

 direction. 



A cunning old stag, which has been hunted 

 before, perhaps many times, is not always willing 



