MAMMALIA 3 1 



Sometimes he had the good luck to kill two dog Foumarts in a 

 day, but this was a rare occurrence, and generally happened in 

 February, or the first week in April. He considers it unsports- 

 manlike to kill a bitch Foumart. When residing at Ulverston, 

 Mr. Coward saw a good many Foumarts killed in that neigh- 

 bourhood, as well as on Blawith Fell, and about Broughton 

 Beck. At that time the Foumart was common on mossy ground 

 near Windermere, and on the borders of other Westmorland 

 lakes. There were many Foumarts on the mosses round the 

 Duddon. They abounded at one time on Muncaster Fell. 

 During the ' sixties,' the Foumart still existed on mosses at 

 Scaleby, Hayton, and Cumwhitton, immediately to the north of 

 Carlisle, while Captain Johnson had at an early period hunted 

 Foumarts in the Brampton district, once a great stronghold of 

 the race. The country, however, immediately west of Carlisle, 

 contained fewer proprietors who trapped their ground. Many 

 of the property owners in this district were comfortable states- 

 men, farming their paternal acres, sharing with their nearest 

 neighbours in the common shooting rights of the adjacent moss. 

 Such was the case at Bowness Moss ; so long as it continued the 

 Foumart continued to show sport — in fact, down to the middle 

 of the ' seventies,' after which Foumart-hunting rapidly declined, 

 though hardly yet entirely obsolete. Mr. Coward took part in 

 many excellent runs until about sixteen years since, when he 

 gave up the Otter-hounds. The chase, as already hinted, might 

 either be pursued by moonlight, as that keen old hunter, ' Billy 

 Little,' prefers, or at break of day, as Mr. Coward thinks best 

 sport. A few Foumarts were generally killed during the last 

 two months of the year, but the sport was followed up most 

 enthusiastically from the beginning of February until the end 

 of April, the dates varying with the severity or mildness of the 

 season. The reason why the best runs occurred in spring was 

 that the male Foumarts were then rutting, and travelled long dis- 

 tances in search of mates. At this time their f foil ' or scent is 

 so strong that it *hangs about a run for many hours, so that the 

 dogs will follow a trail in the early morning left by a Foumart 

 the previous evening, perhaps ten hours earlier. 



Mr. T. Farrall has described the Foumart as frequenting ' the 



