170 GRAY FOX. 



keeping in the van until the chase was ended. Although exercise and 

 amusement are the principal inducements to hunt the Fox, we may men- 

 tion that it is also a desirable object in many parts of our country, to get 

 rid of this thievish animal, which exists in considerable numbers in some 

 neighbourhoods. 



We will now return to our subject, and try to make you familiar with 

 the mode of hunting the Gray Fox generally adopted in Carolina and 

 Louisiana. The hounds are taken to some spot where the animal is 

 likely to be found, and are kept as much as possible out of the " drives " fre- 

 quented by deer. Thickets on the edges of old plantations, briar patches, 

 and deserted fields covered with broom-grass, are places in which the Fox 

 is most likely to lie down to rest. The trail he has left behind him during 

 his nocturnal rambles is struck, the hounds are encouraged by the voices 

 of their masters, and follow it as fast as the devious course it leads them 

 will permit. Now they scent the Fox along the field, probably when 

 in search of partridges, meadow-larks, rabbits, or field-mice ; presently 

 they trace his footsteps to a large log, from whence he has jumped on to 

 a worm-fence, and after walking a little way on it, has leaped a ditch 

 and skulked toward the borders of a marsh. Through all his crooked 

 ways the sagacious hounds follow his path, until he is suddenly aroused, 

 perchance from a sweet, dreamy vision of fat hens, geese, or turkeys, 

 and with a general cry the whole pack, led on by the staunchest and best 

 dogs, open-mouthed and eager, join in the chase. The startled Fox 

 makes two or three rapid doublings, and then suddenly flies to a cover 

 perhaps a quarter of a mile off", and sometimes thus puts the hounds off 

 the scent for a few minutes, as when cool and at first starting, his scent 

 is not so strong as that of the red fox ; after the chase has continued for 

 a quarter of an hour or so, however, and the animal is somewhat heated, 

 Ms track is followed with greater ease and quickness and the scene be- 

 comes animating and exciting. Where the woods are free from under- 

 brush, which is often the case in Carolina, the grass and bushes being 

 burnt almost annually, many of the sportsmen keep up with the dogs, 

 and the Fox is very frequently in sight and is dashed after at the horses' 

 greatest speed. He now resorts to some of the mancEUvres for which he 

 is famous ; he plunges into a thicket, doubles, runs into the water, if any be 

 at hand, leaps on to a log, or perhaps gets upon a worm-fence and runs 

 along the top of it for a hundred yards, leaping from it with a desperate 

 bound and continuing his flight instantly, with the hope of escape from 

 the relentless pack. At length he becomes fatigued, he is once more 

 concealed in a thicket where he doubles hurriedly ; uncertain in what 

 direction to retreat, he hears, and perhaps sees, the dogs almost upon 



