20 WOLF-HUNTING. 



inquired what foreign hounds he had tried in wolf-hunting, and 

 what age they were when he had made the experiment. 



" Your English foxhounds/' he replied, " young drafts of which 

 I obtained from some of your best kennels ; but, admirably 

 suited as they may be for the style of work required from them 

 in a comparatively open country like yours, they don't suit Brit- 

 tany. In the first place, they don't take to the scent as if the 

 wolf was their natural prey ; and, in the next, they want more 

 tongue to let us know where they are in these interminable 

 forests. Here we have no avenues, like those of St. Germain 

 or Fontainebleau no royal road to hounds in chase ; so, with 

 an old wolf that will run straight on end for fifteen or twenty 

 leagues, holding to strong cover so long as he can find it, your 

 chance of living with hounds would be a very poor one if you 

 had not plenty of music to indicate the line. Again, young fox_ 

 hounds are so given to riot that the difficulty of getting at them 

 with a whip in our deep covers is all but insuperable ; and, conse- 

 quently, more tractable and less wilful hounds suit our purpose 

 far better." 



These, I owned, were indisputable reasons for the preference ; 

 and as St. Prix is justly proud of his own grand hounds, there 

 is little fear that, Legitimist as he is, he will ever consent to 

 mix the hybrid blood of our English foxhound with that of 

 his own pure and genuine race. 



During the past night, and occasionally throughout the day, 

 heavy rain had been falling on the eastern ridge of the Black 

 Mountains ; and the brooks, as we crossed them on our home- 

 ward route, had swollen from mere rivulets into fierce and 

 dangerous torrents. The hounds, in many cases, were swept 

 headlong before them, and after a cruel buffeting managed to 

 land some fifty or sixty yards below the ford at which they 

 endeavoured to cross, and where the horses were just able to 

 hold their own and scramble through. At length we arrived 



