70 THE LIFE OF A FOX 



go the pace without a good scent, as they would 

 have them do. Such hounds were always drafted, 

 although, when there was a good scent, this sort 

 could puzzle even the fast riders to keep with them. 

 Partly to this cause, then, I attribute my having 

 hved to my great age. There are other reasons 

 why fewer foxes are killed than formerly. In the 

 first place, the country is overrun with drains, of 

 which there are thousands unknown to the hunters, 

 but known to us. When severely pressed by the 

 hounds, I have often got into one of them, and it 

 frequently happened to be in the middle of an open 

 field, when hounds in chase of me have run over it ; 

 and owing to their mettle and to their being pressed 

 by hard riders, they have been urged on beyond it, 

 then held on forward in every way by the huntsman ; 

 and if, after this, the drain has been discovered, the 

 scent, owing to the time lost, has been nearly gone. 

 The entrance to drains is generally in a low part of 

 the land, which is chilled by water upon it, and 

 therefore may not hold a scent to discover that we 

 have gone into one. 



During the time that that fine old sportsman. 

 Lord Spencer, hunted this country, there were 

 nothing like so many of these drains as there are 

 now, which may in some measure account for fewer 



