The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1878-10-03
Reynard's Stratagems.

The following is an extract from an
article on fox hunting in New England.
in Scri5nef'S Magazine, from the pen OF X.
E. Robinson: But think not thus early
nor with such successful issue is every
chase to close. This was ended before
the fox had used any other trick for baf
fling the hounds, but his simplest one of
running in circles. An hour or two later,
an old fox finding the dogs still holding
persistentlv to all the windingS Of his
trail. would have sped away to another
hill or wood a mile or so of. and would
have crossed newly plOwed fields, the
fresh earth leaving no tell-tale scent;
would have taken to travelled highways,
where dust and the hOOfs of horses, and
the footsteps of men combine to obliter-
ate the traces of his passage or have
trod gingerly along many lengths of
fence, and then have sprung of at right
angles with it to the ground, ten feet
away; and then, perhaps, have run
through a flock of sheep, the strong odor
of whose feet blots out the scent of his
These articles quite bewiIder and battle
the Young dog, but only delay the elder,
who know of old the tricks Of foxes.
Nothing can be more admirable than the
] llllLltI VI Ills W hlAAA do 44C NOlllIo "
the edge of the plCWed field. He wastes
no time in useless pottering among the
fresh turned furrOWs, but with rapid
lOpes skirts their swarded border, till, at
a far corner, his speed slackens as his
keen nose catches the scent again III the
damp grass; he snufis it an instant to as
sure himself, then sounds a loud, melO-
diOus note, and goes on baylng at every
0 l. 70 4hlo1 1Cr,rr F1,Tg
| he zigzags till he finds where the fox has
left it. And now comes the puzzling bit
/ Of fence. The old dog thinks the fox
/ has gone through it; he goes through
/ himself, but finds no scent there; puz-
zles about rapidly, now trying this side,
now that; at last he bethinks himself OF
the too, to which he Chambers and there
finds the missing trail. But mis- big feet
cannot tread the 'giddy footing" Of the
rail as could Reynard's dainty pads, so
down he goes and tries on either side for
/ the point where the fox left the fence.
! Ranging up and down, too near it to hit
the spot where Reynard struck the
ground, he fails to recover the scent,
/ stops, raises his nose and UtteTs a long,
mOurnful howl, half veXatiOn, half des-
/ pair. Now he climbs to the top rail fur
ther on and snuffs it there. mo taint of
a fox's foot is here" j" so reasons, "and he
must have jumped from the fence be
tween here and the place where I found
it :" and acting on this logical conclusion,
he circles widely till he has picked up
the trail once more. and goes merTily on
to the sheep pasture. Here, satisfying
himself of the character of this trick, he
adopts the same plan employed at the
plowed field. and, after a little, finds the
trail on the other side and follows it tC
the hill, but more slowly now, for the fox
has been gone some time; the frost has
melted, the moisture is exhaling and the
scent growing cold. The fox has long
since reached the hill, and half encircled
it, and now hearing the hounds so fal
away, and so slowly nearing, has be
slowed himself on the mossy cushion 0.
a knoll fol rest and cOgitatiOn. Here
ne lies for a half hour or more, but al
ways alert and listening, while the dog:
draw slowly on, now almost losing the
trail on a dry ledge, now catching it in {
moist propiuous hollow, till at last {
nearer burst warns poor sly-boots that hC
must again up and away.