HUNTING THE FOX 61 



yards past the place where the Fox has turned, 

 before they will admit their mistake. There is 

 no animal so masterful and cocksure as a young 

 dog Hound who has raced for the lead and won it. 

 The head, therefore, cannot be too carefully 

 watched, so that if, in the last resort, a cast has to 

 be made, the Huntsman should always have in the 

 back of his mind the exact spot where the scent was 

 actually lost. He also ought to have in the map 

 of his mind Mr. Thomas Smith's invaluable sketch 

 of a cast in his Diary of a Huntsman, pubhshed in 

 1838. This sketch as a general guide for recovering 

 the line after the Hounds have done trying for 

 themselves, and when there is nothing to indicate 

 where the Fox has gone, cannot be beaten ; it is 

 hardly too much to say that it ought to be hung 

 up on the wall over every Huntsman's bed. A 

 Huntsman who will be content to follow the 

 principle of it, and set his face against fancy casts, 

 will be surprised how his Foxes will come to hand, 

 provided always that he knows to a yard where 

 the scent failed. It is here reproduced, and the 

 explanation of it cannot be better given than in 

 Mr. Smith's own words. It should be observed 

 that Mr. Smith cannot be very far wrong, because, 

 in the Craven country — not the best scenting 

 country in England — he hunted his own Hounds, 

 and in one season killed ninety Foxes in ninety-one 

 days. " The principle of it," says Mr. Smith, " at 



