HARE-HUNTING. 441 



able to unravel tins mystery perhaps six times out 

 of ten ; but it is in no man's power to be sure of 

 doing it. His chief guide is in the cry of his pack 

 at this time, which will slacken instead of getting 

 fuller if the scent be heel, as the experience of old 

 hounds adds to their natural instinct the faculty 

 of judging whether it is leading them to their game 

 or from it. 



The great perfection of modern harriers is the 

 head they carry over a country, the result of the 

 pains now taking in breeding them of the same size 

 and character ; whereas, upon the old system, which 

 was all for the pot^ the chief dependence was upon 

 a few couples out of the whole pack, the rest being 

 wheresoever they liked or were able to be in the 

 chase. On the other hand, it may be said modern 

 harriers have not the nose and patience of the old 

 sort, which perhaps they have not ; but what they 

 may lose in those respects, they more than gain in 

 another, viz., by being nearer to their game in 

 chase, and, by pressing her, not allowing her to 

 make more than half the work she was able to do 

 when pursued by slow hounds. In fact, the want 

 of speed, and tedious exactness of the southern 

 hound, rendered the warmest scent, after a short 

 time, cold ; which may be proved from the fact of 

 an hour being the average time of killing a hare, 

 in former days, with a good scent, and from three 

 to four with what is called a '' fair,"" a " holding," 

 or a " half scent."" For our own part, speaking as 

 fox-hunters, yet abandoning all prejudices against 

 a sport it is too much the fashion to hold cheap, 



