310 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



hounds, with a very knowing hand to help them into 

 the bargain. 



In hare-hunting a forward cast is the least likely to 

 succeed, and unless upon great emergencies, harriers 

 should not be cast at all. The more they are left to 

 themselves the better able will they be to work through 

 their difficulties, and a hare-hunter has no business to be 

 in a hurry ; he may sit quietly on his horse, and watch 

 his hounds puzzling out the scent, the probability being, 

 that the hare is only in the next field. A good pack of 

 harriers will keep forward as long as there is a scent 

 before them ; if sheep or cattle have foiled the ground, 

 they may be held on to the next fence, but they should 

 be left as much as possible to their own noses. Lifting 

 them renders them wild, and if often assisted, they will 

 not care about puzzling out the scent. Any clever lad 

 will do as whipper-in to a pack of harriers, as he will 

 have only to attend to the huntsman's orders in stopping 

 or turning the hounds, as may be required. 



To make a pack of harriers run well together, which 

 is their great beauty, you must draft from head and tail, 

 keep none that are faster than the others, or that get 

 forward without a scent. They should all act and move 

 in a body like a troop of cavalry — no old bellman must 

 be kept pottering on the scent, or heel runners. This 

 trick harriers are very much disposed to; it is a bad 

 fault, and where Jack's whip is necessary. When harriers 

 run back the same line they have gone over before, it is 

 not, however, always a proof that they are running heel. 

 Hares practice this manoeuvre more than any other, and 

 therefore your hounds may be right ; at any rate have a 

 little patience, and you will soon see whether they are 



