Morning journal and courier., 1880-08-25
Price Four Cents.

an angle, my dogs left the trail and by short l cut Jolned the intruders, and the whole pack
 was soon in full cry within one hundred l yards of the fox, which was now running di- rectly away from home. At this point the l fox left the woods and took to an open field 1 that sloped abruptly down some three hun I dred yards to a narrow valley. He had bare ! ly disappeared over the brow of the hill when the nine dogs broke from the woods ! over the fence, all of them except the leader With heads erect looking eagerly for their prey.
 ''I was standing on the opposite hill and had an unobstructed view and carefully noted l all the movements of the fox and it's pursu- ers As soon as he had cleared the fence and before the hounds were in position to see him he put on a magnificent burst of speed for one hundred yards down the hill until he reached large stump three feet in height and perfectly flat on top. Leaping upon it he lay down with his nose pointing in the di-
 rectlon of his noisy pursuers and fattened himself out so completely that he was practi- cally invisible to me, and doubt whether man would have noticed him passing within two rods of the stump unless he was looking for something it.
 1.-The hounds came down the hill with a rush, some taking one side of the stump and some the other. There was no abatement in their speed until they reached nearly the op- posite side of the field, when the leader dis covered that the trail was lost, and giving the well known signal the pack were thrown into confusion and the search to pick it up began. As soon as the hounds had gone a safe distance beyond him, Reynard leaped from his perch and made bee-line for home It was nearly fifteen minutes before the hounds made out the trail, and he had amrle time to reach theledge before they were again in pursuit of him.
 The nice judgment displayed by the fox when doubling" on his trail was thus de- scribed ''When fox wants to rest and at the same time enjoy the discontinue of the dogs, he doubles and then sits down and en- joys the sport, which may last fifteen min utes or half an hour, according to circum- stances. There is something peculiar as well as musical in the note or notes of pack of hounds in chase. When going straight away upon the trail each dog has note to which he gives utterance at regular intervals running from 40 to 120 per minute the inter val being heightened or shortened according to the distance between pursuer and pursued the music being slow when the distance
 is great and growing more and more rapid as 1t IS shortened When the chase Is fairly under way the 'tongueing' or baying of the l hounds IS in concert and, to the hunter at least, very musical and harmonious But
 the moment the trail is lost the harmony is
 broken the long, melodious tone is chang ed to harsh barking or bowling at irregular
 intervals, and not until the trail is discover
 ed does the music set in again.
 ''Whenever pack of hounds is in pursuit
 of a fox one particular dog-either because
 of his superior speed or scenting powers, or
 both-is the leader and sometimes he is at
 tended by lieutenant, or second leader I
 am inclined to think that but one, or at most
 two, hounds in pack run by the trail The
 rest simply follow the leader, who runs 8
 yard or two to the side of the trail to which
 the wind blows, and who neither carries his
 nose down or up, but horizontally, with his
 head slightly lowered. The moment the
 leader loses the trail he stops and gives two
 three sharp quick howls. If the pack is
 running closely together tho hounds gather
 around the leader in apparent confusion.
 Noses go down almost to the ground and
 tails go up at an angle of sixty-fve degrees,
 and each dog begins to describe circle, which
 gradually widens and must eventually cross
 the trail of the fox. Thesdog that strikes the
 trail and veriies it-and about seven times
 out of ten it is the leader himself, he nearly
 always describing the outer circle-with a
 joyous tone gives vent to the long musical
 note alluded to and the whole pack gathers
 about him. If another than the leader has
 recovered the trail he carries it until the cap-
 tain comes to the front, when he resigns and falls in behind.
 ''This explanation said the narrator, ''is necessary to illustrate the ingenuity of the fox in doubling Whether he doubles for the amusement 1t affords him, or whether he does it to secure rest while his pursuers are worrying themselves, am not prepared to decide, but both may have something to do with it. I have known foxes that would not double once during a chase, while others did nothing else but double and spoiled all the amusement of the chase.
 ''What is doubling? "
 ''The simplest thing in the world. Reynard gets considerable distance ahead of the hounds and turns back upon his track, re- tracing his course for POO or 300 yards. Then he diverges at right angles For the point of divergence he nearly always selects long log that runs of from his course at a proper angle. He carries his tail ten or twelve feet clear of the end of the log, and when he gets back to it takes a long leap upon it and fol lows it to the end. Thence he gets away briskly to some eminence at @ little distance, and resting himself on his launches, watches the pack go by. Of course the hounds run past the point where the fox diverged, and if they are running at high rate of speed the leader may run 8 considerable distance beyond the point where the fox turned back before he signals to his followers with the peculiar howls described. Then begin the confused barking and yelping and the cir cling of the hounds until one of the widening circles crosses the line of divergence and the lucky dog announces the discovery with a joyous, musical cry, and his companions rush pell nell to join him.
 ''This may have occupied twenty minutes and all this time the fox was out 1n full view of the dogs as they ran bowling and yelping in search of his trail, whisking his bushy tail or standing ever and anon upon his hind feet, cutting all kinds of comical capers as though the whole performance was a circus. But the moment that the dog strikes the trail and announces the fact with the genuine note of the chase, Reynard bricks up his sharp ears, gives his brush an extra flourish and bolts in the opposite direction to repeat the same rick at his leisure.
 hundred times. The fox knows as well he hunter when the dogs are lost and he will not budge from his coign of observation lntil the trail is actually picked up although he hounds might pass bowling within less han ten rods of him. If a fox turns at a fight angle the hounds are thrown off the rail ninety-nine times out of hundred, but t is easily picked up. It Is only when the OK doubles far back upon his trail and diver ,es to windward along the bed of a shallow tream, taking the water as he runs that the logs are totally discomfted and probably paced to abandon the chase altogether.
 stBut,'' continued the hunter, 'tit is when wo foxes double teams on the hounds and ut little distance ahead of them that they ,reek a pack to pieces. This they habitually
 To if chased while raising their young The logs on such occasions generally start the Qal6 ursC, ana GIl1b it1Wdy6 III Lu6 uIBHt Sed- on, little distance from their kennel, which nay be hollow log or tree or a ledge of ocks. He leads them lively chase of five r six miles back to the vicinity of the start ng point. Hero he is met by the female, rho carries the trail straight ahead, while he male diverges at right angle and the ounds missing him, follow up his compan- on She in turn is relieved by the male, and his is kept up and in two or three hours the est bottomed dogs are exhausted.
 'FWhy exhausted? That may be readily ex- lained. A well bred fox-hound will run rom six to ten hours at pace of between even and ten miles hour when at 8 con iderable distance behind fox. At dis ance of quarter of a mile, we will say, he uns at the rate os seven or eight miles an our in his eagerness to come up with the ox Such pace is killing and can only be maintained for 6 short time When two oxes are doubling teams on the hounds they urposely run but short distance ahead of 1em, and by constantly relieving each other re able to speedily exhaust the longest inded of their pursuers.
 t'Wheu thus worn out the hounds abandon le chase with pitiful howls of distress, and le foxes, which still keep in their proximi- 7, answer them with sharp, weird cries, re- ,mblinp somewhat the barking of a young