CH. VIIL] BEAT OF FOUR OR FIVE DOGS. 145 



tageous to uncouple a greater number of good rangers. 

 If, however, the scarcity of game, and the extensiveness 

 of your beat, or any peculiar fancy, induce you habitually 

 to use four dogs, hunt one brace to the right, the other 

 to the left ; and, so far as you can, let those which form 

 a brace ~be of equal speed* Your task will be facili- 

 tated by your always keeping the same brace to one 

 flank, I mean, by making one brace constantly hunt 

 to your right hand ; the other brace to your left. The 

 same reasoning holds with regard to assigning to each 

 dog a particular side when hunting three, according to 

 the mode described in last paragraph. It should, how- 

 ever, be borne in mind, that constantly hunting a dog 

 in this manner on one and the same flank, tends to 

 make him range very disagreeably whenever employed 

 single-handed. 



245. If you hunt five dogs, four of them ought to 

 work by braces to the right and left, and the fifth (the 

 dog whose rate of speed most varies from the others) 

 should have a narrow beat assigned him directly in 

 advance of you. 



246. If three brace are to be used, let the third brace 

 hunt the central ground, as recommended for the fifth 

 dog, or they could b$*worked in leashes, one on the 

 right of the gun, the other on the left. 



247. These are the correct theoretical rules, and the 

 more closely you observe them, the more truly and 

 killingly will your ground be hunted. 



248. Probably you will think that such niceties are 

 utterly impracticable. They must be impracticable, if 

 you look for mathematical precision ; but if you are deter- 

 mined to hunt many dogs and hope to shoot over more 

 than a mere rabble, you should work upon system. If you 



* A rule to be followed whenever you employ relays of braces. 



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