DIGGING OF FOXES. 311 



horses, and to vourself. Dioffing a fox is 

 cold work, and may require a gallop after- 

 wards to warm you all again. Before you do 

 this, if there are any other earths in the cover, 

 they should be stopped, lest the fox should go 

 to ground again. 



Let your huntsman try all around, and let 

 him be perfectly satisfied that the fox is not 

 gone on, before you try an earth : for want 

 of this precaution, I dug three hours to a 

 terrier that lay all the time at a rabbit : there 

 was another circumstance which I am not 

 likely to forget, — "that I had twenty miles 

 to ride home afterwards." A fox sometimes 

 runs over an earth, and does not go into it : 

 he sometimes goes in, and does not stay : he 

 may find it too hot, or may not like the 

 company he meets with there. I make no 

 doubt that he has good reasons for every thing 

 he does, though we are not always acquainted 

 with them. 



Huntsmen, when they get near the fox, will 

 sometimes put a hound in to draw him. This 

 is, however, a cruel operation, and seldom 

 answers any other purpose than to occasion 

 the dog a bad bite, the fox's head generally 

 being towards him ; besides a few minutes' 



