The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-25
Prepnrations for the Hunt.

Recessionai Hymn. F. H. Cheesewright
 Preparations for the Hunt.
 The cowboy on hunt in the Rockies tracks hls game with dog or without one, as the case may be, finds the quar- ry that day or the next, and brings 1t down, if he Is fortunate, some time dur ing the week. In France 1t Is quite a different matter.
 Long before the Marquis guests are on the train coming down from Paris, long before the marquis himself is up in his hotel in the Faubourg St. Germain just at dawn of the day. in fact, and while the morning mist is in the val leys and hanging over the pools-the chief piqueur has sent out valet de chiens. with a imier in the leash, to discover the lair of stag. These linn iers are a variety of hounds bred for this one special purpose; and partly be- cause they know the habits of the deer so intimately, and are so practised in this one work, and partly because they are too old for any other use, they are kept for this work alone.
 Both hound and man are old stagers; and they make a wise pair, the one with his fine instinct and scent, the other with his knowledge and eyesight. They go out in the first light of the morning. with the keeper in the lead. both calm. and imbued with sense of the responsibility before them. With his long-tried experience of the forest and his knowledge of all the runs" and feeding-grounds, the keeper makes shrewd guess, that has some elements of certainty. as to where they may come upon scent. He stoops, picks up some leaves. holding them to the hounds nose. and the keen animal sets about towering" the spot in the vi- cinity. The moment he stumbles on a scent he Is completely changed. His stern begins to wave, his hackles rise. and, from tagging brute, he becomes an active, intelligent being. Things are reversed; he takes the lead now, pulling the harborer after him, yet neither man nor hound utters a sound, and even the brute steps carefully to avoid rustling the autumn leaves.
 While the hound rubs his nose along the ground. going wherever the scent eagerness. the man, letting himself be led slowly, watches for signs that would be quite invisible to an untu- tored eye. And so, as instinct keeps them to the course the stag has wan- dered over during the night, reason is making up a conception of what the animal is. The man measures the dis tance between broken twigs on either side of the course, estimates thus the spread of the deer's antlers, and will tell you shortly the animals age, and if it is stag or a doe. The direction of the trail. the kind of shrubbery the deer has fed on, the drag, and the na- ture of the places where he has lain down-all define more clearly size, sex, age. Should the game be of the wrong sex or less than three years old, the good hound is broken away from the trail and sent to search for new one. For a French sportsman is no indis- criminate slayer of youth; and then, too, the Marquis must have his quarry of the right age, or the run may be too short or too slow.
 These two silent beings make ghost ly pair, straining.. along out of the thick mist, going with unerring wisdom along the record the stag must always leave behind him, just as sure to come up with him in time as if they were crawling towards him led by silken thread that wound about in the laby- rinths of the woods. It is fascinating, if you go out with them some morning, to see the two intelligences working to- gether. to see the hound understand a long detour that will bring them up on the leeward side of the quarry, and to watch him. when he at last knows where the stag is lying, look up, at his master from the corner of his eye as he stands motionless, heading towards the thicket that shelters the deer. They know their business well.-From With the Hounds in France" by Ham, blen Sears. in Harper's Magazine for January. %
 The New Haven Collectershlp.