THE HUNTER. 55 



beyond his own natural ardour, so severely as we sometimes do, and even 

 until nature is quite exhausted. We do not often hear of a "hard-day," 

 without beini^ likewise informed, that one or more horses either died in the 

 field, or scarcely reached home before they expired. Some have been 

 thoughtless and cruel enough to kill two horses in one day. One of the 

 severest chases on record was by the king's stag-hounds. There was an 

 uninterrupted burst of four hours and twenty minutes. One horse dropped 

 dead in the field ; another died before he could reach the stable ; and seven 

 more within a week afterwards. 



It is very conceivable, and does sometimes happen, that, entering as 

 fully as his master into the sports of the day, the horse disdains to yield 

 to fatigue, and voluntarily presses on, until nature is exhausted, and 

 he falls and dies ; but much oftenep, the poor animal has, intelligibly 

 enough, hinted his distress ; unwilling to give in, yet painfully and 

 faulteringly holding on. The merciless rider, rather than give up one 

 hour's enjoyment, tortures him with whip and spur, until he drops and 

 expires. 



Although the hunter may be unwilling to relinquish the chase, he who 

 <' is merciful to his beast" will soon recognise the symptoms of excessive 

 and dangerous distress. To the drooping pace and staggering gait, and 

 heaving flank, and heavy bearing on hand, will be added a very peculiar 

 noise. The inexperienced person will fancy it to be the beating of the 

 heart; but that has almost ceased to beat, and the lungs are becoming 

 gorged with blood. It is the convulsive motion of the muscles of the belly, 

 called into violent action to assist in the now laborious office of breathing. 

 The man who proceeds a single mile after this ought to suffer the punish- 

 ment he is inflicting.* , 



Let the rider instantly dismount. If he has a lancet, and skill to use it, 

 let him take away five or six quarts of blood ; or if he has no lancet, let 

 him cut the burs with his pocket knife as deeply as he can. The lungs 

 may be thus relieved, and the horse may be able to crawl home. Then, 

 or before, if possible, let some powerful cordial be administered. Cordials 

 are, generally speaking, the disgrace and bane of the stable ; but here, and 

 almost here alone, they are truly valuable. They may rouse the exhausted 

 powers of nature ; they may prevent what the medical man would call the 

 reaction of inflammation ; although they are the veriest poison when in- 

 flammation has commenced. 



A favourite hunter fell after a long burst, and lay stretched out, convulsed, 

 and apparently dying. His master procured a bottle of good sherry from 

 the house of a neighbouring friend, and poured it down the animal's 



* We should almost rejoice if the abused quadruped, cruelly urg-ed beyond his 

 powers, were to inflict on his rider the punishment which a Spanish ruffian received, 

 when mercilessly torturing-, in a similar way, a poor Indian slave, who was carrying- 

 him on his back over the mountains. It is thus related by Captain Cochrane, (Colombia 

 ii. 357.) — " Shortly after passing- this stream, we arrived at an abrupt precipice, which 

 went perpendicularly down about fifteen hundred feet, to a mountain torrent below. 

 There Lieutenant Ortegpas narrated to me the following- anecdote of the cruelty and 

 punishment of a Spanish officer: — This inhuman wretch, having fastened on an immense 

 pair of mule spurs, was incessantly darting the rowels into the bare flesh of the tortured 

 eillero, who in vain remonstrated with his persecutor, and assured him he could not 

 quicken his pace. The officer only plied his spurs th^ more, in proportion to the murmurs 

 <>f the sillero. At last the man, roused to the highest pitch of infuriated excitement and 

 resentment, from the relentless attacks of the officer, on reaching this place, jerked him 

 from his chair into the immense depth of the torrent below, where he was killed, and hia 

 body could not be recovered. Tlie sillero dashed oiT at full speed, escaped into the 

 mouDtain, and was never after heard of." 



