138 A MONTH IN THE FOEESTS OF FRANCE. 



him. Instead of his going into that wood after feeding 

 on the Friday night, he had gone through the wood 

 to his feed, and slept somewhere else, as some of the 

 best nosed hounds, backed by the ocular demon- 

 stration of his footmarks as well as the uprooting of 

 his nose, proved, by tracing him to a field of potatoes. 

 And here again was terribly evident to me the igno- 

 rance of the French huntsman. We marked him 

 into the midst of a narrow valley, surrounded on two 

 sides by the woods, and at either end by a village. 

 We found where he had delayed some time in 

 digging his potatoes, consequently the line after 

 his feed ought to have been a little stronger than it 

 was before it, and at least it would have served the 

 hounds as well. To a certainty we had him on the 

 open lands ; to as great a certainty he had again left 

 those open lands and entered the woods ; the hunts- 

 man without the delay of one moment, therefore, 

 should have held his hounds clear round the valley 

 on the edge of the woods, and as he had hit him into 

 the fields he must have hit him off*, and he might 

 eventually have come up with him. Instead of thus 

 following the English plan, the whole establishment 

 remained puzzling among the potatoes and on clover 

 lands, as if they had been looking for a hare or even 

 for a landrail ; till at last the hounds showing a very 



