Year: 1878

The following is an extract from an


article ON fox hunting in New England


in ScTT5ner's Magazine, from the pen of r


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
persistently to all the windings of his
trail, would have sped away to another


NIL or wood a mile or so off 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 glngerly along many lengths of a
fence, and then have sprung off at right
angles with it TO the ground, ten feet
away; and then, perhaps, have run
through flock of sheep, the strong odor
OF whose feet blots out the scent of his.
These articles quite beEilder 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
manner OF his working as he comes to
the edge OF the plowed field. He wastes
no time IN useless pottering among the
fresh turned fuTows, but with rapid


iopes skirts their swarded bordef. till. at
far corner, his speed slackens as his
keen nose catches the scent again in the
damp grass he snufS it an instant to as
sure himself then sounds a loud, melo-
dious note, and goes on baying at every
lOpe till the road is reached. Along this
he lgzags 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 1t; he goes through
himself, but finds no scent there; puz-
zles about rapidly, now trying this side
now that; at last he bethinks himself oi
the top, to which he chambers and there
finds the missing trail. But his 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 utters long,
mournfm howl, half Yexation, half des-
pair. Now he climbs to the top rail fur
ther on and snuffs it there. HNo taint of
a fox's foot is here, 50 reasons, san6 he
must have jumped from the fence be-
tween here and the place where / found
it :" and acting on this logical conclusion,
he circles widely till he has picked up
the trail once more. and goes merrily 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 little, finds the
trail on the other side and follows It to
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 far
away, and so slowly nearing, has be-
slowed himself on the mossy cushion of
a knoll fol rest and eogitation. Here
he lies for a half hour or more, but al.
ways alert and listening, while the dogs
draw slowly on, now almost losing the |
trail on dry ledge, now catching it in a
moist propftious hollow, till at last
nearer burst warns poor sly-boots that he
must again up and away