THE FOX 75 



Animals of this class depend far less upon their 

 sight than upon their hearing and sense of smell. 

 Neither the fox nor the dog is capable of much dis- 

 crimination with the eye ; they seem to see things 

 only in the mass; but with the nose they can ana- 

 lyze and define, and get at the most subtle shades 

 of difference. The fox will not read a man from a 

 stump or a rock, unless he gets his scent, and the 

 dog does not know his master in a crowd until he 

 has smelled him. 



On the occasion to which I refer, it was not many 

 minutes after the dogs entered the woods on the 

 side of the mountain before they gave out sharp 

 and eager, and we knew at once that the fox was 

 started. We were then near a point that had been 

 designated as a sure run- way, and hastened to get 

 into position with all speed. For my part I was so 

 taken with the music of the hounds, as it swelled up 

 over the ridge, that I quite forgot the game. I saw 

 one of my companions leveling his gun, and, looking 

 a few rods to the right, saw the fox coming right 

 on to us. I had barely time to note the silly and 

 abashed expression that came over him as he saw us 

 in his path, when he was cut down as by a flash of 

 lightning. The rogue did not appear frightened, 

 but ashamed and out of countenance, as one does 

 when some trick has been played upon him, or when 

 detected in some mischief. 



Late in the afternoon, as we were passing through 

 a piece of woods in the valley below, another fox, 

 the third that day, broke from his cover in an old 



