76 Modern Dogs. 



relative would not dare to enter. Yet, though a 

 whole pack may be seen busily waving their sterns 

 as they push their way through bracken and furze, 

 it is generally one of only two or three hounds — 

 often almost invariably the same one — who first 

 rouses the fox. An extraordinary instinct appears 

 to belong, now and again, to some special hound, 

 who has the gift, as he or she enters covert up the 

 wind, of raising the head as if to take stock, and then 

 making straight for the fox's lair. This is probably 

 to be credited to exceptional power of nose. But to 

 whatever source it may be due, huntsmen will bear 

 me out in testifying to the frequent existence of such 

 faculty. 



" Again, it is generally some single hound — or 

 one of only a few — who puzzles out the line down a 

 road, when all the others are helpless and mystified. 

 A huntsman, of course, soon gets to know upon 

 which of his hounds he can place reliance ; and, 

 indeed, at such time he orenerallv looks anxiouslv for 

 old Bonnyfield or Sarah to help him out of the diffi- 

 culty. No greater difficulty, by the way, exists than 

 in the arrival upon a cold, scentless road, unless it 

 be in coming to the junction point of four, any 

 of which his fox may have followed. (Memo. — If 

 there be one occasion more than another on which 

 the field should render assistance to a huntsman by 



