194 RAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



I will relate tlie following : a farmer in the south 

 once applied to the M.F.H. to lend him hounds to kill 

 some foxes that committed a great deal of damage on 

 his estate. The hounds were sent, and found an old 

 well-known fox with no tail, that had been frequently 

 seen to kill young calves ; when the hounds came up, 

 the fox faced round and beat them off for some con- 

 siderable time, till a bitch went in and, after a severe 

 fight, killed him single-handed. 



Leaving the above-mentioned gentleman for the benefit 

 of the buzzards, I mounted, and rode about two miles to 

 some small lagunas, where I had been told some snipe 

 were to be found. On arriving I found a great deal of 

 water and the ground very shaky. I had acquired per- 

 sonal experience of the eff*ect of being bogged in a 

 Chile quagmire with the Valparaiso hounds ; in fact, I 

 believe one man was swallowed up, horse and all, in one 

 of these horrible places. It is always best, however, to 

 trust to your horse, as they have an instinctive dread of 

 them, it being absolutely impossible to distinguish them 

 by the eye. I dismounted again, and on getting to some 

 higher ground, '^ cheep ! cheep ! '' up they got in all 

 directions, the weather being too clear and calm for them 

 to rise well. They confused me so much, especially as I 

 was standing up to my knees in water, that I fired away 

 six cartridges and only got two snipe. It Was awful 

 work getting up to them again, as they sat as close as 

 quail, springing up altogether almost under my nose. 

 By-the-bye, the same thing holds good in England ; most 

 tyros think that the best time to shoot snipe is on a cold 

 frosty day when the air is calm and clear; it is in reality 

 the very worst of all weathers. Let your snipe get a 

 strong haunt during these days, and when the first 



