Harriers 89 



A hare in running will generally describe 

 a circle, its size varying with circumstances, 

 such as the nature of the country, the state 

 of her own vigour, &c. Puss is by no manner 

 of means a fool, and the cunning and shifts 

 a hunted one will display are astonishing, 

 such as, for instance, doubling back on her 

 own footprints ; and w^hen this trick is 

 practised on a highroad or dry footpath, it 

 is very effective in bothering hounds. After 

 doubling they often make a most astound- 

 ing spring, and wait till hounds have passed, 

 then creep quietly back the same way they 

 came. 



There are few things more extraordinary 

 to me than the fact that when drawing for a 

 hare there seems, as long as she lies quietly 

 in her form, to be no scent; for, have we 

 not all, at times, watched hounds sniffing 

 about within a yard of the terrified quarry, 

 or actually passing over her form without 

 winding her ? Scent, as we know, is one of 

 the hidden mysteries of the chase, which not 

 even so great an authority as the Duke of 



