MODERN HARE-HUNTING 99 



and the Glanyrafon, a Welsh pack, hunt three days 

 also with but eleven and a half couples. These are 

 rare instances, however, and few people would care 

 to undertake hunting three days a week with less 

 than eighteen or twenty couples — twenty-two or 

 twenty-five couples is a more comfortable number. 

 It should be always borne in mind that bitches are 

 more likely to get out of order than dogs, and where 

 the pack contains many bitches, therefore, a larger 

 number of hounds is required. 



Hounds should be at the meet punctual to time. 

 At the meeting-place some packs are shut up in a 

 stable, but the majority are kept in the open, as with 

 foxhounds, until the word is given and a move made. 

 It happens not seldom that a farmer or shepherd is 

 well aware of a hare seated, and can take the field 

 straight to her form. That saves a good deal of 

 trouble, and the hunt quickly begins. But, more 

 often, the hare has to be found, and this, in country 

 where these animals are scarce, is occasionally a very 

 tedious process. Personally, I have never had the mis- 

 fortune to hunt in a country where hares were scarce ; 

 but one can sympathise with those who suffer from 

 this drawback, and can understand their betaking 

 themselves to deer, fox, and even baser substitutes — 

 of which more anon. Where the pack is hunted 

 on foot, hares are, I think, more easily found than 

 with a mounted pack. 



Good hare-finders are, as I have shown, scarce 

 commodities, and the pack that owns one among 

 its followers has a treasure indeed. How many a 

 rousing hunt do I not owe to a certain hare-finder 

 of my acquaintance ! How often have I not seen 

 his square hat go up quietly, and the hare put gently 

 from her seat, so that she should have a fair start 



