318 The Hunting Countries of England. 



necessary to the education of the artificially nurtured 

 animal. Foxhunting once resumed in the autumn goes 

 steadily on for nine months. Each day there is the 

 long wide search for the '^ varmint/^ who, once found, 

 is usually followed obstinately to the death. There are 

 generally foxes enough, though they are often difficult 

 to find amid a wide area, nearly all of which is covert 

 — though, were it not for the sea cliffs whence the 

 supply is continually recruited, such a drain as is 

 entailed by these many months of hunting could not 

 but be exhausting. Wherever heather grows there is 

 shelter enough for a fox ; while, where it has been left 

 unburnt for a few years, snugger harbourage could 

 scarcely be found. On the roughest core of Exmoor 

 Forest, it is true, there is but a scanty growth of 

 heather — rank, bog-grown grass taking its place. But 

 many thousands of acres of the Moor are hidden 

 under the thick purple blossom — amid which a fox 

 may choose a warm dry kennel anywhere. To find 

 him the chief hope rests upon striking his drag, where 

 he has passed in the early morning. The scent then 

 left will remain perceptible for many hours, and give 

 a key to his position that hounds can generally turn to 

 account. In many parts the heather is allowed to 

 grow freely for years — more often as covert for the 

 black game (or heath-poult, as the vernacular of the 

 country has it), which flourish in great abundance 

 wherever preserved. It is easy to understand that a 

 fox passing through this must leave a hanging scent 

 in his passage. 



Exmoor altogether is ground of extraordinary 

 scent- carrying properties. The bleak moorlands 



