36 ROE-SHOOTING. 



Such a one will always prefer a day with scarcely a 

 breath of air, high wind being destruction to his sport : 

 first, from the difficulty of hearing the hound ; and next, 

 from the currents of air which he will be obliged to 

 avoid, lest the roe should wind him. His only com- 

 panion is a very slow and steady hound. Thoroughly 

 acquainted with all the passes, he places himself in that 

 he considers the best, ready to change his position should 

 the baying of the hound seem to indicate that the roe 

 has taken a different direction. If it escapes at the first 

 burst, he is not at all disconcerted, as his tactics now begin. 

 The roe perhaps stretches away into the large pine forest, 

 and he sees his good hound slowly and surely threading 

 his way through the thick underwood, making the welkin 

 ring. Now is the time for our sportsman to display the 

 strength of his lungs and limbs. Aware that the roe, 

 after a fair heat, will probably slacken his speed, and 

 with the hound scarcely more than a hundred yards be- 

 hind, course slowly round and round a knot of hillocks, 

 perhaps for half an hour at a time, he will use his utmost 

 efforts to keep within hearing of the bay. Whenever 

 this appears nearly confined to one place, he advances 

 with extreme caution, peering round at every step, with 

 his gun cocked and held ready to fire. The sound seems 

 now at hand again more distant, as it is obstructed by 

 the intervening hillocks; he conceals himself upon an 

 angle of one of them, near the centre of the knot, to 

 command as good a view both ways as he can. If the 



