232 STAG-HUNTING 



meanwhile taking up any position from which he can 

 see best what happens, and the whip going to one of 

 the points where the stag is likely to show himself, 

 or to the side of the valley opposite the huntsman. 



In ordinary weather hounds will generally be able 

 to pick out the drag, and hunt the stag to his bed, but 

 in such heat as sometimes prevails in August, and 

 even in September, scent may not lie long enough for 

 them to do this, and then the task of drawing the 

 great woods all in full leaf, hour after hour, under a 

 harvest sun is no enviable one for either huntsman 

 or hounds ; nor are things much better in heavy 

 rain. 



The French say that our hounds have very poor 

 noses, but I remember at least two l instances when 

 hounds hunted up to and found stags who must have 

 gone in from feed fully six hours before ; and curi- 

 ously enough on both occasions there had been 

 heavy rain falling all the time, enough one would 

 have supposed to wash all scent away. 



A great assistance when the tufters cannot hunt 

 the drag is the fact that stags, like most animals, have 

 their favourite spots in almost every cover ; and suc- 

 cessive deer will be found in successive seasons 

 among the same rocks, or in the same hollow, just 

 1 October 5, 1885, and August 13, 1886. 



