144 HOUND AND HORN 



makes him scoot along ; nothing like bursting him 

 up at the start." 



But Tom was not invariably right in his recogni- 

 tion of foxes, for five minutes later we saw hounds 

 coursing a wretched creature along the river's bank 

 and pull him down in mid-stream as he was trying 

 to cross a shallow, making for a rough scaur in 

 which there were caves large enough to hold a 

 whole pack. When I waded in, half-way up to 

 the tops of my boots, I found a poor beast, un- 

 sound on both forelegs — one being snare-marked, 

 and the other carrying a wire that was cutting in 

 to the bone — yet fat as a seal withal, and quite 

 incapable of standing up before hounds, so Tom 

 had to confess himself mistaken. 



Before this fox was well broken up we heard a 

 far-off holloa from the top of the Dene, and as we 

 moved off to it, information was conveyed by signal 

 and otherwise that a fox had gone away, and we 

 learned that he had a good six or seven minutes' 

 start. 



Hounds, who were keen enough to begin with, 

 were now desperately eager ; but we held them 

 together till we got round above the Dene, where 

 they felt for and soon found the line, and went off 

 with a good cry and at a fair pace. 



A bunch of so-called '^ knowing ones," mostly from 

 neighbouring hunts, had ridden cunning for a start, 

 and had the advantage of being above us and on 

 the right side of the stream, and seemed likely to 

 hustle hounds before they had properly established 

 a scent and settled down to run it. But the line 

 was over a nicely fenced country that required a 



