THE LOST SCENT. 199 



may be active, and may lose no time ; yet tired 

 foxes will stop if you can hold them on ; and I 

 have known them stop even in wheel-ruts on the 

 open down, and leap up in the midst of the 

 hounds. A tired fox ought not to be given up, 

 for he is killed sometimes very unexpectedly. 

 If hounds have ever pressed him, he is worth 

 your trouble : perseverance may recover him, 

 and, if recovered, he most probably will be 

 killed ; nor should you despair whilst any 

 scent remains. The business of a huntsman is 

 only difficult when the scent dies quite away ; 

 and it is then he may show Ais judgment, when 

 the hounds are no longer able to show theirs. 

 The recovering a lost scent, and getting nearer 

 to the fox by a long cast, requires genius, and is 

 therefore what few huntsmen are famous for. 

 When hounds are no longer capable of feeling 

 the scent, it all rests with the huntsman : either 

 the game is entirely given up, or is only to be 

 recovered by him, and is the effect of real 

 genius, spirit, and observation. 



When hounds are at cold-hunting with a bad 

 scent, it is then a good time to send a whipper- 

 in forward : if he can see the fox, a little mob- 

 bing, at such a time as this, may reasonably be 

 allowed. 



