Infinitely the most enjoyable and invigorating branch of cross-country running is the old-fashioned paper chase, introduced about the year 1867. It is with sorrow that we have to record the fact that every year the paper chase finds a smaller place in the fixture card of leading clubs, and that it is being displaced by the ever-increasing number of races with their attendant prizes, which involve traversing two or three set courses so often as to become quite monotonous.
If a paper chase is to be successful, the details cannot be too carefully arranged. Two hares are chosen, preferably of equal calibre, possessing a knowledge of the surrounding country. They should, before starting, have a general idea of the course they mean to steer. Each hare carries a long sausage-shaped bag supported from his shoulders, packed tight with printers' waste strips, which are recommended strongly in preference to squares of paper. It is essential to the success of the chase that a continuous trail shall be lightly laid; and the practice in vogue at our Universities of laying the scent in patches some distance apart is to be condemned. If these ordinary bags are tightly packed, the paper, with judicious laying, will easily last ten miles. A clever pair of hares will lay several false scents to check the too rapid progress of the hounds, and by taking advantage of the cover and varying the nature of the country as much as possible the run is made more interesting. The grace allowed the hares is usually ten minutes, but it should not exceed fifteen minutes, and the hounds should always have a fair chance of catching the hares. Upon the hounds receiving a check, say in the middle of a field, the pack should at once spread out in fan shape, and on the scent being regained the fact should be notified by bugle or call. The distance traversed will, of course, vary considerably, but it should not exceed ten miles, for there are few runners who can last a longer distance without undue exhaustion. Some runners maintain their stride throughout, and we have even known instances of men who have kept on their toes throughout a long journey, but the majority of runners are not strangers to a temporary feeling of fatigue during some part of the journey--it may be over plough or going up hill--but they are recommended to make the effort to maintain a jog trot rather than indulge in the luxury of a walk, because it is found that alternately walking and running materially increases the fatigue in the long run.