The time to track hares is after a fall of snow deep enough to conceal the ground completely. As long as there are black patches intermixed, the hare will be hard to find. It is true that outside these the tracks will remain visible for a long time, when the snow comes down with a north wind blowing, because the snow does not melt immediately; but if the wind be mild with gleams of sunshine, they will not last long, because the snow is quickly thawed. When it snows steadily and without intermission there is nothing to be done; the tracks will be covered up. Nor, again, if there be a strong wind blowing, which will whirl and drift the snow about and obliterate the tracks. It will not do to take the hounds into the field in that case;[1] since owing to excessive frost the snow will blister[2] the feet and noses of the dogs and destroy the hare's scent. Then is the time for the sportsman to take the haye nets and set off with a comrade up to the hills, and leave the cultivated lands behind; and when he has got upon the tracks to follow up the clue. If the tracks are much involved, and he follows them only to find himself back again ere along at the same place,[3] he must make a series of circuits and sweep round the medley of tracks, till he finds out where they really lead.[4]
[1] Lit. 'I say it is no use setting out with dogs to this chase.'
[2] {kaei}. Cf. Arrian, xiv. 5.
[3] Reading {ekonta} sc. {ton kunegeten . . .} or if {ekonta, kuklous}
[sc. {ta ikhne}], transl. 'if the tracks are involved, doubling on
themselves and coming back eventually to the same place.'
[4] Or, 'where the end of the string is.'
The hare makes many windings, being at a loss to find a resting-place, and at the same time she is accustomed to deal subtly[5] in her method of progression, because her footsteps lead perpetually to her pursuit.
[5] {tekhnazein}. Cf. Ael. 'N. A.' vi. 47, ap. Schneid. A fact for
Uncle Remus.
As soon as the track is clear,[6] the huntsman will push on a little farther; and it will bring him either to some embowered spot[7] or craggy bank; since gusts of wind will drift the snow beyond such spots, whereby a store of couching-places[8] is reserved[9]; and that is what puss seeks.
[6] 'Discovered.'
[7] 'Thicket or overhanging crag.'
[8] {eunasima}, 'places well adapted for a form.'
[9] Al. 'many places suited for her form are left aside by puss, but
this she seeks.'
If the tracks conduct the huntsman to this kind of covert he had better not approach too near, for fear the creature should move off. Let him make a circuit round; the chances are that she is there; and that will soon be clear; for if so, the tracks will not trend outwards from the place at any point.[10]
[10] L. Dind. emend. {oudamoi}, 'the tracks will not pass in any
direction outwards from such ground.'
And now when it is clear that puss is there, there let her bide; she will not sir; let him set off and seek another, before the tracks are indistinct; being careful only to note the time of day; so that, in case he discovers others, there will be daylight enough for him to set up the nets.[11] When the final moment has come, he will stretch the big haye nets round the first one and then the other victim (precisely as in the case of one of those black thawed patches above named), so as to enclose within the toils whatever the creature is resting on.[12] As soon as the nets are posted, up he must go and start her. If she contrive to extricate herself from the nets,[13] he must after her, following her tracks; and presently he will find himself at a second similar piece of ground (unless, as is not improbable, she smothers herself in the snow beforehand).[14] Accordingly he must discover where she is and spread his toils once more; and, if she has energy still left, pursue the chase. Even without the nets, caught she will be, from sheer fatigue,[15] owing to the depth of the snow, which balls itself under her shaggy feet and clings to her, a sheer dead weight.
[11] Al. 'to envelop the victims in the nets.'
[12] Lit. 'whatever the creature is in contact with inside.'
[13] Cf. Aesch. 'Prom.' 87, Poto tropo tesd' ekkulisthesei tukhes}.
[14] Or, 'if the creature is not first suffocated in the snow itself.'
[15] See Pollux, v. 50. 'She must presently be tired out in the heavy
snow, which balls itself like a fatal clog clinging to the under
part of her hairy feet.'
IX
For hunting fawns[1] and deer,[2] Indian dogs[3] should be employed, as being strong, large, and fleet-footed, and not devoid of spirit; with these points they will prove well equal to the toil.
[1] See Hom. 'Il.' xxii. 189, x. 361; 'Od.' iv. 35; Aelian, 'N. A.'
xiv. 14; xvii. 26; Geopon. xix. 5.
[2] {e elaphos} (generic, Attic) = hart or hind, of roe (Capreolus
caprea) or red (Cervus elaphus) deer alike, I suppose. See St.
John, 'Nat. Hist. and Sport in Moray.'
[3] Of the Persian or Grecian greyhound type perhaps. See Aristot. 'H.
A.' viii. 28; Aelian, 'N. A.' viii. 1; Pollux, v. 37, 38, 43;
Plin. 'H. N.' vii. 2, viii. 28; Oppian, 'Cyn.' i. 413.
Quite young fawns[4] should be captured in spring, that being the season at which the dams calve.[5] Some one should go beforehand into the rank meadowlands[6] and reconnoitre where the hinds are congregated, and wherever that may be, the master of the hounds will set off-with his hounds and a supply of javelins-before daylight to the place in question. Here he will attach the hounds to trees[7] some distance off, for fear of their barking,[8] when they catch sight of the deer. That done he will choose a specular point himself and keep a sharp look-out.[9] As day breaks he will espy the hinds leading their fawns to the places where they will lay them severally to rest. [10] Having made them lie down and suckled them, they will cast anxious glances this way and that to see that no one watches them; and then they will severally withdraw to the side opposite and mount guard, each over her own offspring. The huntsman, who has seen it all,[11] will loose the dogs, and with javelins in hand himself advance towards the nearest fawn in the direction of where he saw it laid to rest; carefully noting the lie of the land,[12] for fear of making some mistake; since the place itself will present a very different aspect on approach from what it looked like at a distance.
[4] See above, v. 14. I do not know that any one has answered
Schneider's question: Quidni sensum eundem servavit homo
religiosus in hinnulis?
[5] 'The fawns (of the roe deer) are born in the spring, usually early
in May,' Lydekker, 'R. N. H.' ii. p. 383; of the red deer
'generally in the early part of June,' ib. 346.
[6] {orgadas} = 'gagnages,' du Fouilloux, 'Comment le veneur doit
aller en queste aux taillis ou gaignages pour voir le cerf a
veue,' ap. Talbot, op. cit. i. p. 331.
[7] Or, 'off the wood.'
[8] It seems they were not trained to restrain themselves.
[9] Or, 'set himself to observe from some higher place.' Cf. Aristoph.
'Wasps,' 361, {nun de xun oplois} | {andres oplitai diataxamenoi}
| {kata tas diodous skopiorountai}. Philostr. 784.
[10] See Pollux, v. 77; Aristot. 'H. A.' ix. 5. Mr. Scrope ap.
Lydekker, 'R. N. H.' ii. p. 346, states that the dam of the red
deer makes her offspring 'lie down by a pressure of her nose,'
etc.
[11] Lit. 'when he sees these things.'
[12] Or, 'the features of the scene'; 'the topography.'
