IN FRANCE 211 



discipline, and also to have better noses. They are 

 expected to be, and in fact when properly entered 

 are, staunch from change, and will not only carry the 

 line of their hunted deer through the crossing scents 

 of a herd of others, but will discriminate between his 

 scent and that of a fresh deer ; will refuse to acknow- 

 ledge the latter if they cross it in a cast ; and will 

 even turn aside from any deer but the right one who 

 may jump up before them. 



Just as no deer is the exact duplicate of any other 

 in size and shape, so I suppose each differs a little in 

 scent from all his fellows ; and of course the scent of 

 a heated, and still more of a beaten, animal differs 

 from that of a fresh one : but this sagacity is remark- 

 able. The Comte le Conteulx de Canteleu, to whose 

 book 1 1 am indebted for my information about French 

 hunting, makes it clear, however, that trusty hounds 

 can be depended on to mark the difference in 

 these ways between a fresh and a hunted stag long 

 before the latter is getting beaten ; and he is emphatic 

 in his recommendations to trust the hounds and let 

 them run on if the good ones still stick to the line, 

 even though the whole field declare that they have 

 changed on to a hind or some other game. 



In support of this he gives an incident from his 



1 Manuel de Venerie Fran$aise. Hachette, 1890. 



p 2 



