^26 TIfOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ 



4? 



LETTER XXIII, 



I TOLD you, 1 believe, at the beginning of our cor- 

 respondence, that I disHked bag -foxes : 1 shall now tell 

 you what my obje<ftions to them are : — the scent ©f them 

 is different from that of other foxes : it is too good, and 

 makes hounds idle j besides, in the manner in which they 

 generally are turned out, it makes hounds very wild :— * 

 they seldom fail to know what you are going about 

 before you begin ; and, if often used to hunt bag-foxes, 

 will become riotous enough to run any thing. A fox that 

 kas been confined long in a small place, and carried out 

 afterwards in a sack, many miles perhaps, his own ordure 

 hanging about him, must needs stink extravagantly. You 

 are also to add to this account, that he most probably 

 IS weakened for want of his natural food and usual exer- 

 cise ; his spirit broken by despair, and his limbs stiffened 

 by confinement : he then is turned out in open ground, 

 without any point to go to. He runs down the wind, 

 it is trues but he is so much at a loss all the while. 



