136 HUNTING. 



to give to such a one, if he seeks it, sufficient information to 

 enable him to commence his career as a huntsman, and leave it 

 to his natural aptitude to perfect him after experience in the 

 profession. 



A resident in our colonies or in a foreign country, where 

 no hounds are kept, would be naturally dependent on books 

 for instruction, and to him, therefore, are these lines specially 

 addressed. An aspirant to fame as huntsman resident in 

 the United Kingdom or Ireland may be recommended to 

 follow the advice already suggested. 



The huntsman having made himself well acquainted with 

 his hounds, and they having got to know him, sallies forth from 

 his kennel, his object being to find a fox. Should he be draw- 

 ing an open country, he should draw directly up the wind or 

 with a good cheek wind. The pace at which he draws should 

 be regulated by the thickness of the stuff through which hounds 

 have to go, whether it is gorse, heather, bracken, fern, or the 

 rushy materials and myrtle that grow on bogs. And here let 

 me remark that there is no place in an open country where 

 a fox is so likely to be found as a bog. Water rats, moor hens, 

 ducks, and mice, all favourite articles of food, are there in 

 abundance ; there are generally high dry tussocks of strong 

 rough grass, and on these he makes a warm dry bed. Often a 

 fox is found a hundred to a hundred and fifty yards away from 

 the bog, he having made his bed in a thick patch of short gorse 

 within easy reach of his larder. One of the prettiest sights to 

 a lover of hunting is to note this up-wind or cheek-wind draw. 

 You will observe some hounds quietly pass on, drawing and 

 sniffing at the bushes by which a fox has passed during the 

 night, and you will suddenly see one hound to whom a whiff 

 has come put his nose up into the air, sniff, and going first 

 right then left, finally make his mind up whence comes this 

 scent. He will follow it patiently as it gets stronger and 

 stronger, leave the bog and go a hundred or a hundred and 

 fifty yards to a thick bed of gorse or bramble. He will go 

 all round it, losing the scent when he gets the up-wind side 



