CHAPTER XI 



THE LATER CUB-HUNTING 



The cub-hunting season naturally divides itself 

 into two parts. From the middle of August to 

 the end of September, or perhaps to the first week 

 in October, the first part of the cubbing season 

 extends, and by that time the big woods will have 

 been well rattled, the young hounds will have been 

 well blooded and have got to know their work, and 

 the pack be ready for a fresh departure. Especially 

 will this be the case in an early season, when there 

 does not seem to be any likelihood of a return of 

 the hot droughty weather that makes hunting im- 

 possible except in the early hours of the morning. 

 There are various opinions as to the proper way in 

 which cub-hunting should be conducted, and some 

 men are very angry at a huntsman for killing a 

 brace or a leash of foxes in the course of a morning's 

 work in the big woods. I am inclined to think 

 that in many countries too few instead of too many 

 foxes are killed during the cubbing, and that as a 

 matter of fact something very like cubbing takes 

 place in them as late as December, when they get 

 into strong covert. An example of this occurs to 

 my memory. There was a certain big wood I 

 know well, which at one time was certainly not 

 rattled as it should have been for some cause or 



