THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 275 



courage, strength, speed and tongue, they were 

 unrivalled. Like the game they pursued, they 

 never appeared to be putting forth all their 

 powers of speed, and yet few horses could live 

 with them on the open. Their rarest quality, 

 perhaps, was their sagacity in hunting in the 

 water — every pebble, every overhanging bush or 

 twig which the deer might have touched, was 

 quested as they passed up or down the stream, 

 and the crash with which the scent, if detected, 

 was acknowledged and announced, made the 

 whole country echo again. 



" Nor must I forget to notice the staunch- 

 ness with which they pursued their game, even 

 when the scent had been stained by the deer 

 passing through a herd of his own species, 

 or through fallow-deer in a park. Wonderful, 

 indeed, was the unerring instinct they displayed 

 in carrying on the scent, disregarding the lines, 

 which, spreading right and left around the track 

 of the hunted deer, would, it might well be 

 supposed, have been fatal to their power of 

 keeping on the foot of their quarry." 



Again, "The importance of the two qualifi- 

 cations of staghounds above mentioned, viz. : 

 sagacity in hunting in the water, and staunch- 

 ness in pursuing a hunted deer through the 

 herd and upon stained ground, is well known to 

 every man accustomed to the sport. -They are 

 important, nay, indispensable, in consequence of 



