144 TEIE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



present. Hounds, in such countries, burst their fox, and 

 drive him to his shifts, before he has time to avail 

 himself of his geography. They get well away with him 

 from gorse, or small covert, and are never off his line. 

 This is not generally the case from a larger covert ; 

 hence the reputation of woodland foxes, which are said 

 to be always the best. I have been told by some of the 

 oldest and best sportsmen, that all the finest runs they 

 can remember, have been when a fox has got a good 

 start, and the scent has chanced to be good enough to 

 allow hounds, in nautical phrase, to overhaul him, coming 

 up with him, hand over hand, when he little expected 

 them. It is then too late to return, or the gallant 

 *' varmint" has been too far committed to retract, and 

 is compelled to do, or die, at once. A good scent may 

 be truly said to make a good fox. 



As to Mr. Smith's idea, that a fox must be a good 

 judge of scent because he lives by hunting, and that he 

 regulates his movements accordingly, it certainly might 

 puzzle ingenuity to say too much of the wiliness or 

 sagacity of the animal, whose cunning is proverbial ; 

 but the supposition of their knowledge of a good scent 

 is not, in my humble opinion, quite borne out by fact. 

 It is true that they will take to a lane, or hard road, 

 as will also the hare, and play other vagaries, seemingly 

 with a notion of diminishing the scent ; but I am 

 inclined to think, that the surface for their footinir, the 

 difference of travelling over light or heavy ground, is 

 their consideration ; or else why does a fox invariably 



