THOUGHTS UtON HUi?TIN<?. 163 



which hate the leadj and the degree of scent that they carry )i 

 but also to the various circumstances that are continu- 

 ally happening from change of weather and difference of 

 grotlnd : he will likewise be mindful of the distance 

 which the hare keeps before the hounds, and of her for- 

 mer doubles : he will also remark what point she makes 

 to. All these observations will be of use, if a long 

 fault make his assistance necessary ; and, if the hare should 

 have headed back, he will carefully observe whether she 

 met with any thing in her course to turn her, or turned 

 of her own accord. When he casts his hounds, let him be- 

 gin by making a small circle : if that will not do, then 

 let him try a larger : he afterwards may be at liberty to 

 persevere in any cast that he shall judge most likely. — As a 

 hare generally re-visits her old haunts, and returns to the 

 place where she was first found ; if the scent be quite 

 gone, and the hounds can no longer hunt — that is as 

 likely a cast as any to recover her. — Let him remember 

 in all his casts, that the hounds are not to follow his horse's 

 heels ; nor are they to carry their heads high, and noses 

 in the air. At these times they must try for the scent, or 

 they will never find it ; and he is either to make his cast 



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