126 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



following a fresh fox which points at once for the moors. On 

 the other hand, it is occasionally the case that a fox found 

 in one of the valleys below the moors will make an excursion 

 on to the heather after he has been well hunted; but when 

 this happens h© usually just skirts the heather for a mile or 

 two and quickly leaves it again. My experience also is that 

 in the north scent lies well on the heather if the fox is not 

 far in front, but not for so long as on grass if he has been 

 gone some time. I have noticed hounds run a fox hard 

 on grass land for twenty minutes or so, and then slow down on 

 reaching the heather more than once, and I have also seen 

 houndsi just able to pick a line across a corneir of moor, and 

 on reaching the grass beyond go away with a scream. I 

 have also seen many well-hunted foxes lost after they reached 

 the moor, and once or twice, on really good scenting days, 

 I have seen hounds go almost as fast over the heather as they 

 had been doing on the grass; but over a long period of yeavi 

 I can recall very few — certainly not more than three or four 

 — foxes actually pulled down in the heather after they had 

 been well hunted. In recent years — before the war, of course 

 — if the Braes of Derwent hounds ran a Sneep fox on to the 

 moors it became customary for a big majority of the field to 

 remain on the nearest road and wait for the pack being 

 brought back, and I am strongly of opinion that in a country 

 where the moors are merely a boundary of the hunt, and not 

 included in the country to be drawn, this is much the best 

 plan to adopt. Riding over the moors is not popular with 

 the crowd, and where there is plenty of country elsewhere 

 it is waste of time to hunt there, unless, indeed, a really well- 

 run fox takes hounds on to moorland after a big spell of 

 inland hunting, and this, as I have explained, is a not very 

 common occurrence. 



