154 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



crosses from the thoroughbred harrier to the half-blooded 

 greyhound, besides the 01 pollol of the dog 1 world generally, 

 whose family no one could make out. This miscellaneous rabble 

 seemed to think that they were assembled for the special 

 purpose of fighting, so they went at it vigorously whenever 

 they had the opportunity. Were it not for the pace at which 

 they were moving and the many yells and curses hurled at 

 them by their owners, half of them would evidently have 

 been killed before we reached our destination. 



A trot of three or four miles brought us to a scrubby coppice, 

 in which firs, cottonwoods, alders, and willows were mingled 

 together in confusion. Adjoining this was a stream, and back 

 of it rose a series of the low terraces so characteristic of the 

 trappean regions of the Pacific Coast. One of the party, 

 who had two mongrel hounds that were used for hunting any- 

 thing, from the bear and deer to a wild cat, and which were said 

 to be excellent " smellers," was appointed Master of the Hunt, 

 out of respect to his dogs; and he, pleased with his new honour, 

 went proudly forward with his pack, and began to beat the 

 excuse for a wood downward, while others took positions to 

 the windward to check any movements in that direction by 

 the quarry. A half-bred Indian, who was supposed to know 

 more about coyotes than they did themselves, took all the 

 dogs that he could induce to follow him to a treeless vale below 

 the coppice, but his followers were evidently bent more on 

 fighting than hunting, for our ears were soon regaled with 

 snarling, growling, and yells, and the " cussing " of a dis- 

 gusted whipper-in. I had taken a position to the leeward of 

 the vale with a party of four, who had half a dozen dogs with 

 them that no amount of coaxing and patting could induce to 

 leave the heels of their masters, and there we waited patiently 

 for half an hour, but hearing no sound that indicated work, 

 an impatient member of the group started off himself, stating 

 that he could find a coyote quicker than all the assembled canine 

 multitude. His assertion proved perfectly correct, for he was 

 gone scarcely ten minutes before two ochreous-coloured objects 

 were seen stealing out of a burrowin the open ground a little way 

 below us, as if they thought themselves too modest to liu-c 



