GRAY FOX. 169 



From Maryland to Florida, and farther west, tirougli Alabama to Mis- 

 sissippi and Louisiana, fox-hunting, next to deer-hunting, is the favourite 

 amusement of sportsmen, and the chase of that animal may in fact be 

 regarded exclusively as a Southern sport in the United States, as we be- 

 lieve the fox is never followed on horseback in the Northern portion of 

 our country, ■where the rocky and precipitous character of the surface in 

 many districts prevents the best riders from attempting it ; whilst in others, 

 our sturdy independent farmers would not much like to see a dozen or 

 more horsemen leaping their fences, and with break-neck speed galloping 

 through the wheat-fields or other " fall " crops. Besides, the red fox, 

 w^hich is more generally found in the Northern States than the Gray spe- 

 cies, runs so far before the dogs that he is seldom seen, although the 

 huntsmen keep up with the pack, and after a chase of ten miles, during 

 which he may not have been once seen, he perhaps takes refuge in some 

 deep fissure of a rock, or in an impenetrable burrow, which of course' 

 ends the sport very much to the satisfaction of — the Fox ! 



In the Southern States, on the contrary, the ground is in many cases 

 favorable for this amusement, and the planter sustains but little in- 

 jury from the passing hunt, as the Gray Fox usually courses through 

 woods, or worn-out old fields, keeping on high dry grounds, and seldom 

 during the chase running across a cultivated plantation. 



Fox-hunting, as generally practised in our Southern States, is regarded 

 as a healthful, manly exercise, as well as an exhilarating sport, which in 

 many instances would be likely to preserve young men from habits of 

 idleness and dissipation. The music of the hounds, whilst you breathe 

 the fresh sweet morning air, seated on a high-mettled steed, your friends 

 and neighbours at hand with light hearts and joyous expectations, await- 

 ing the first break from cover, is, if you delight in nature and the re- 

 creation we are speaking of, most enlivening ; and although we our- 

 selves have not been fox-hunters, we cannot wholly condemn the young 

 man of leisure who occasionally joins in this sport ; at the same time let 

 him not forget that whilst exercise and amusement are essential to health 

 and cheerfulness of mind; the latter especially was not intended to 

 interfere with the duties of an active and useful life, and should never 

 be more than a relaxation, to enable him to return the more energetically 

 to the higher and nobler pursuits which are fitted for an intelligent and 

 immortal mind. 



In fox-hunting, the horse sometimes becomes as much excited as his 

 rider, and at the cry of the hounds we have known an old steed which 

 had been turned loose in the woods to pick up a subsistence, prick up his 

 ears, and in an instant start off full gallop until he overtook the pack, 



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