THE MOUNTAIN-FOX. 253 



no litters, the usual way of hunting is to place a man, with 

 a streaker or greyhound ready to slip, upon the top of the 

 neighbouring hills ; the fox-hunter then draws all the correis, 

 crags, &c., where they prowl. Should Eeynard be started, he 

 is almost sure to take a course over the top of one of the 

 hills where the men are posted. He comes up all blown, 

 and, if observed (which, I must say, is seldom the case), has 

 a fresh streaker slipped upon him, which ought to run him 

 down. 



I may here give an account of a hunt I had with one of 

 my brothers, after as fine a mountain-fox as ever prowled 

 upon the wild moor. We had gone on a roe-hunting expedi- 

 tion to a high and steep hill in Dumbartonshire, the lower 

 part of which was a larch and oak copse, the centre a large 

 pine-wood, and the top covered with long heather. After 

 choosing our passes between the pine-wood and copse, we sent 

 a first-rate old hound to draw the latter ; scarcely had it been 

 in the cover ten minutes, when it opened upon a cold scent, 

 and continued puzzling for a considerable time. As this was 

 not his wont when upon a roe, we half suspected a fox : 

 presently the scent warmed, and in a short time the hound 

 opened gaily. Our hopes were high, as it came straight in 

 the direction of our passes. In a moment I heard my brother 

 fire : and the baying of the hound ceasing shortly after, I 

 concluded the shot had taken effect, and walked off to see 

 what he had killed. When I had gone a little distance, I 

 met him running and calling to me to get into my pass 

 again, as he had shot at an enormous fox in the thickest 

 part of the cover; and as it had doubled back, which had 

 occasioned the check, it would most likely try my pass next. 

 I wheeled about at full speed, and arrived just too late 

 for a deadly shot. When within seventy yards of the pass, 

 the fox was bounding over the stone wall that divides the 

 copse from the pine-wood, and presenting his broadside, a 

 very distant but clear and open shot, I discharged both bar- 



