64 HUNTING THE FOX 



steam and stain of the horses prevents the hounds 

 feeling the scent, the quick first cast back. If 

 there is no wind to guide him, there may be a cover 

 to which the fox is gone, on the left ; but still he 

 holds them first the unlikely side." 



The one contingency that Mr. Smith would 

 seem to omit is that of the Fox having gone to 

 ground and the Hounds having failed to mark 

 him. Those who have studied and applied this 

 plan can give numerous instances of its success. 

 Some years ago, on a very cold day in January, 

 with a steady north wind blowing, a pack of Fox- 

 hounds had hunted their Fox due west for about 

 five miles at a fair hunting pace with little or no 

 help. The first real check then occurred one field 

 short of a turnpike road running almost due north 

 and south. Hardly a mile away, straight down 

 wind on the left or southern flank, was a well- 

 known stronghold. A man in a one-horse trap was 

 halted in the road, having heard the Hounds. 

 He had not seen the Fox, though the Fox might 

 have seen him. It looked like a thousand to one 

 that the Fox had turned down the wind to gain 

 the friendly stronghold, and a very strong tempta- 

 tion arose to hold them that way. But not for- 

 getting Mr. Thomas Smith, the short up-wind cast 

 was tried, nearly back to the original line ; in less 

 than two minutes they hit him off and raced into 

 him in the middle of a grass field three miles farther 



