264 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



found elsewhere : the earths, at such times, should he 

 stopt three or four hours before day, or you will find ncx" 



foxes. 



The first day you hunt a cover that is full of foxes, and 

 you want blood, let them not be checked back into the 

 cover (which is the usual prafitice at such times), but let 

 some of them get off: if you do not, what with continual 

 changing, and sometimes running the heel, it is probable 

 that you will not kill any. Another precaution, 1 thinky 

 may be also necessary — that is, to stop such earths only 

 as you cannot dig. If some foxes should go to ground, 

 it will be as well j and if you should be in want of blood 

 at last, you will then know where to get it. 



It is usual, when people are not certain of the stea- 

 diness of their hounds -from deer, to find a fox in an ad- 

 jacent cover, that they may be on their right scent when 

 they come where deer are. 1 have my doubts of the pro- 

 priety of this proceeding. If hounds have not been well 

 awed from deer, it is not fit that they should come among 

 them; but, if hounds be tolerably steady, I would rather find 

 a fox with them among deer, than bring them afterwards 



