LETTER XXII. 239 



what eagerness they press when some old warrior points 

 out and notes the failing track. Forward they fly, with 

 burning zeal, to aid their well-known leader; but it 

 avails not. Too intricate the web, which wisdom and 

 experience can alone unravel. I have seen also (and I 

 dare say many an old sportsman can bear me testimony) 

 hounds running hard up one side of a hedge, when the 

 fox had gone up the other. 



Foxes have been said, by some acute writers, to be 

 good judges of scent, and therefore make themselves 

 scarce on good scenting days, the reason assigned why 

 they should be so being that they catch their prey by 

 hunting. The conclusion from such premises, that a fox 

 must therefore know a good scenting day from a bad one, 

 as applicable to his own individual case, is not quite so 

 comprehensible to my obtuse understanding as I could 

 wish. It is a mystery, perhaps, appertaining to the theory 

 of the noble science in which I am not yet sufficiently 

 instructed myself, and therefore cannot enlighten my 

 readers. Stoats and weasels I have seen hunting down 

 their game, until they are entirely worn out by running ; 

 and I have seen Mr. Stoat run into his fox (i, e., rabbit) 

 in the open, as thoroughly beaten and done up as a hare 

 before a pack of beagles ; but in all my excursions, both 

 by day and twilight, and also under the pale moon's 

 silvery rays — although I have met Mr. Wiley occasion- 

 ally " by moonlight alone," and have seen him perform 

 many and clever antics in various ways — T have never 

 yet witnessed any attempts on his part to run down his 

 game by nose. That he possesses very strongly-deve- 

 loped organs of smelling, I freely admit, and this will be 

 readily granted by all who have the honour of Mr. Wi- 



