266 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



for long together. Hitherto Stormer, a wonderful 

 young hound, and some of the speedier of the pack 

 have been doing most of the leading work. We come 

 to a check on a wide piece of ploughing. Watch now 

 as they cast themselves, spreading fan-like over the 

 red earth, and, with noses close to the ground, search- 

 ing staunchly for the slightest taint of the animal in 

 front of them. See the pale old hound out yonder ; 

 how busy he is ! That is old Captain, the best-nosed 

 hound in the pack, a veteran of seven seasons, who, 

 in such emergencies as this, is the most trusted ally 

 alike of huntsman and of his fellow hounds. No harrier 

 in Sussex is better on a road, or a dry plough, than he. 

 Not a hound in England is more reliable or more 

 truthful. Captain has it ! His head goes up, he 

 flings forth a deep note or two, and to him fly Sally 

 and Pepper, two famous blue-mottled bitches of the 

 right Southern hound lineage. " It is right ! " they 

 cry, with still deeper and more melodious voices than 

 that of Captain himself. The rest of the pack fling 

 to them, and slowly, with encouraging music, they 

 puzzle out the line of the hare. They clear the plough 

 and sweep more briskly over some down grass again ; 

 and then, upon some more plough thickly sown with 

 flints, scent seems to fail them altogether. The sun 

 has done its work, and the hare has for the moment 

 the best of it. 



Here comes the huntsman's opportunity. He 

 makes a circling cast forward. Hounds just touch 

 the line, but lose it again. Now comes a holloa from 

 the Master, who, with quick eyes, has, as usual, noted 

 the hunted hare creeping round once more towards 

 her old haunts. That holloa, and the wave of the 

 Master's hat, is, in such an emergency, when we look 

 like being run out of scent altogether, good enough, 



