I02 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



Holloaing gets hounds' heads up and tends to make 

 them wild and unsteady, almost more than any other 

 practice, and it cannot be too severely discountenanced. 



Having found their hare, away go the pack in pursuit, 

 with a grand burst of music. The hare may run, 

 contrary to the habit of the fox, as likely up wind as 

 down. She will almost certainly travel in a circle, 

 more or less wide, according to the way she is pushed, 

 or her own natural stoutness. A travelling jack hare, 

 out of his country, may, and very likely will, run 

 straight ; and in dense fog a hare, jack or doe, will 

 occasionally lose its bearings and afford a fine tail- 

 on-end chase. A hare that has been thoroughly 

 scared, either by a narrow escape from the ravening 

 pack as they put her up, or from the yells or near 

 presence of foot people, will in like manner some- 

 times go straight away and give a rousing good hunt. 

 The best run I ever saw with harriers happened in 

 this way. We found a hare near the sea. She ran 

 through a number of people — it was near a village, 

 and there were a good many out and much holloa- 

 ing — and she sustained such a fright that she took 

 straight away over a splendid line of country and 

 was killed seven miles away in a direct line, hounds 

 having traversed not less than fourteen miles of 

 country. 



When scent is first-rate, hounds hunt themselves, 

 and little assistance is needed ; and it should always 

 be remembered with harriers, especially with the 

 tender-nosed, old-fashioned harrier, that hounds un- 

 derstand much more of the great business of their 

 lives than does the human hunter, clever though he 

 may think himself. An old Irish huntsman once 

 said to a noble lord, who was making various sugges- 

 tions at a check : " Me Lard, the most ignorant hound 



