536 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



have the hounds fed lightly on stale bread, and to be in the 

 saddle a little before sunrise. The horses should have, the 

 night before, a good feed of oats and only a little hay, and 

 in the morning, an hour before the start, a moderate feed of 

 oats. When brought out, they should have a dozen or so 

 swallows of water. 



The hounds should be kept well in to heel untU the 

 place for making the cast off is reached. They should be 

 handled, as far as possible, by one person, and one person 

 should have general direction of the hunt. When the 

 start is made, the Fox lays out the course, and, in racing 

 parlance, cuts out the running. The hunt will, in a good 

 degree, take shai)e at its own wild will. Often a crisis will 

 arrive when everything is at sea, every man is for himself, 

 and the cry is, "Devil take the hindmost," whether that 

 hindmost be Fox, hound, horse, or huntsman. Neverthe- 

 less, an exi)erienced Fox-hunter never quite loses his head, 

 and acts always with care and judgment. 



I will now attempt a descrii)tion of one of the greatest 

 races in which I can remember to have been a particijDant. 

 A few brief notes as to the scene of the hunt will facilitate 

 an understanding of the narrative. The residence of my 

 father, in the old commonwealth of Virginia, was situated 

 centrally in the grand old county of Loudoun, about two 

 miles from Goose Creek, the beautiful Indian name of 

 which was To-hong-ga-roo-ta, and about the same distance 

 from Aldie Gap, in the Bull Run spur of the Blue Ridge 

 Mountains. It was about eight miles from our home east- 

 ward to the mouth of the creek, where its waters are emp- 

 tied into the Potomac, at the upper end of Selden's Island. 

 In this part of its course the creek is a bold and rapid 

 stream, from seventy five to one hundred j^ards wide. Its 

 banks in places are long, level bottoms; in other places 

 rising into precipitous bluffs and rugged cliffs, covered 

 with hemlocks and dense ivy-thickets. 



In the fields, thickets, strips of woodland, and glades 

 bordering this creek, it was always an easy matter to start 



