y morning
they'd find a track in the snow. The leader for scent would go back and
forth, to find out which way the fox was going. I can see him now. All
the time that he ran, now one way and now another on the track of the
fox, he was silent, but kept his tail aloft, wagging it as a signal to
the hounds behind. He was leader in scent, but he did not like bloody,
dangerous fights. By-and-by, he would decide which way the fox had gone.
Then his tail, still kept high in the air, would wag more violently. The
rest followed him in single file, going pretty slow, so as to enable us
to keep up to them. By-and-by, they would come to a place where the fox
was sleeping for the day. As soon as he was disturbed he would leave his
bed under some thick fir or spruce branches near the ground. This flung
his fresh scent into the air. As soon as the hounds sniffed it, they
gave tongue in good earnest. It was a mixed, deep baying, that made the
blood quicken in my veins. While in the excitement of first fright, the
fox would run fast for a mile or two, till he found it an easy matter
to keep out of the way of the hounds. Then he, cunning creature, would
begin to bother them. He would mount to the top pole of the worm fence
dividing the fields from the woods. He could trot along here quite a
distance and then make a long jump into the woods. The hounds would
come up, but could not walk the fence, and they would have difficulty in
finding where the fox had left it. Then we saw generalship. The hounds
scattered in all directions, and made long detours into the woods and
fields. As soon as the track was lost, they ceased to bay, but the
instant a hound found it again, he bayed to give the signal to the
others. All would hurry to the spot, and off they would go baying as
they went.

"Then Mr. Fox would try a new trick. He would climb a leaning tree, and
then jump to the ground. This trick would soon be found out. Then
he'd try another. He would make a circle of a quarter of a mile in
circumference. By making a loop in his course, he would come in behind
the hounds, and puzzle them between the scent of his first and following
tracks. If the snow was deep, the hounds had made a good track for him.
Over this he could run easily, and they would have to feel their way
along, for after he had gone around the circle a few times, he would
jump from the beaten path as far as he could, and make off to other
cover in a straight line. Before this was don