56 HUNTING THE FOX 



be justified by complete success, while a failure, 

 or even a partial success, may ruin the whole day. 

 But there are other occasions when the scent in 

 covert, particularly in a thick one, may not be so 

 good, and only a few Hounds have opened. The 

 whipper-in holloas a Fox away down the wind, 

 probably the same one that the Hounds have found. 

 He should not continue holloaing longer than is 

 necessary to let the Huntsman know that the Fox 

 is away. The leading Hounds may or may not 

 go to the holloa. But the worst thing the Hunts- 

 man can do is to gallop off to the holloa with them 

 and begin blowing his horn for the rest of the pack 

 when he gets there. The Fox having gone away 

 down wind, most of the best Hounds will be left 

 in the thickest part of the covert and may not 

 hear the horn at all, and at best will get a bad 

 start, a poor reward indeed for having generously 

 gone into the thorns and brambles to get the Fox 

 on his legs, and one that may well make them 

 rather chary of repeating the process. It is true 

 that with a certain amount of luck every Hound 

 may eventually be counted out of covert, provided 

 always they do not get on to another Fox on the 

 way ; but the tail will be separated from the head 

 by one or two fences, and probably by several 

 ladies and gentlemen who will have galloped down 

 wind after the Huntsman in order to get a start, 

 so that the pack will not get together until the 



