2^6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, 



Let your huntsman try all around, and let him be per-? 

 fe6tly satisfied that the fox is not gone on, before you try 

 an earth : for want of this precaution, 1 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 — 

 *' ibat J had twenty miles to ride hom^ afterivai-ds.'" — A 

 fox sometimes runs over an earth, and does not go into 

 it : he sometimes goes in, and docs not stay : he may find 

 it too hot, or may not like the company that he meets 

 with there. I make no doubt that he has good reasons for 

 every thing he docs, though we are not ahvays acquainted 

 with them. 



Huntsmen, when they get near the fox, will some- 

 times put a hound in to draw him. This i?, however, a 

 cruel operation, and seldom answers any other purpose 

 than to occasion the dog a bad bile, the fox's head gene- 

 rally being towards him ; besides, a fgw minutes digging 

 will render it unnecessary. If you let the fox first seize 

 your whip, the hound will draw him more readily*. 



* Yon may draw a fox, by fixing a piece of whip. cord, made into a 

 noose, at the end of a stick ; which, wlien the fox seizes, you may draw 

 him out by . 



