254 AUDXJBON THE NATURALIST. 



is completed. The glaring torcli-light is soon 

 seen dispersing the shadows of the forest, and 

 like a jack-o'-lantern, gleaming along the skirts 

 of the distant meadows and copses. Here are 

 no old trails on which the cold- nosed hound tries 

 his nose for half an hour to catch the scent. 

 The tongues of the curs are by no means silent 

 — ever and anon there is a sudden start and an 

 uproarious outbreak: "A rabbit in a hollow, 

 wait, bojs, till I twist him out with a hickory." 

 The rabbit is secured and tied with a string 

 around the neck: another start, and the pack 

 runs off for a quarter of a mile, at a rapid rate, 

 then double around the cotton fields and among 

 the ponds in the pine lands — "Call off your 

 worthless dog, Jim, my Pinch er has too much 

 sense to bother after a fox," A loud scream and 

 a whistle brings the pack to a halt, and presently 

 they come panting to the call of the black hunts- 

 man. After some scolding and threatening, and 

 resting a quarter of an hour to recover their 

 breath and scent, they are once more hied for- 

 ward. Soon a trusty old dog, by an occasional 

 shrill yelp, gives evidence that he has struck 

 some trail in the swamp. The pack gradually 

 make out the scent on the edges of the pond, and 

 marshes of the rice fields, grown up with willows 

 and myrtle bushes. At length the mingled 

 notes of shrill and discordant tongues give evi- 



