FOX-HUNTING IN VIRGINIA. 



By Dr. M. G. Ellzey. 





^HERE are, in America, two modes of hunting the 

 Fox; one with hounds and horse, the other with 

 hound and a gun, after the manner of driving Deer. 

 "^^ With the latter of these methods, the writer has 

 no acquaintance. It prevails at the North, in country 

 impracticable for the chase as practiced at the South, and 

 is said by those devoted to it to be very exciting and enjoy- 

 able sport. They desire a slow hound, which is a good 

 trailer, that they may stand at a likely place, along the run, 

 and shoot the Fox as he ambles along in front of the 

 hound. The sale of the pelt is the ultimate object, the 

 apparent raison dy etre of the sport. Leaving the descrip- 

 tion of this method to those who are familiar with its enjoy- 

 ments, I proceed to attempt a description of the Fox-chase 

 as I have known and enjoyed it in Old Virginia, where a 

 pack of hounds is used to kill the Fox, or run him to earth. 

 The chase here is similar to the English hunt in its main 

 features, though differing in details, so far as it is ren- 

 dered necessary by the nature of the country, the habits of 

 the people, and especially by the differences between their 

 Foxes and ours. I am persuaded that the American Red 

 Fox, as found in the States of Maryland, Virginia, West 

 Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, is an animal far 

 superior to the English Fox, in speed, endurance, cunning, 

 and resource, when in front of a dangerous pack. He 

 laughs an inferior pack to scorn. 



I will preface the proj^osed account of the sport by a 

 brief sketch of the Fox. We have about half a dozen sorts 

 of this animal, including the varieties of the far Nortli. 

 Authors divide them up for classification and nomenclature 



