io6 WOLF-HUNTING. 



doubtless bestowed on the purity of the breed for many genera- 

 tions. Hence, if anywhere a trace of the blood still exists, it 

 may fairly be looked for in the Vendean land, the favourite 

 hunting-ground of royalty, and the country, par excellence, of grand 

 packs established for ages. To Lower Brittany, too, the same 

 argument would apply even in a stronger degree ; inasmuch as 

 that peninsular land, so isolated from the rest of France, and so 

 unvisited by innovation, once possessing the blood, would be 

 more likely to preserve it pure among its ancient kennels, than a 

 country more frequented by strangers and the changes incidental 

 therefrom. 



But M. de Kergoorlas laid no claim to the remote age of St. 

 Hubert for the pedigree of his hounds : he would, however, 

 descant for hours on the success he had achieved in resuscitating 

 the old Vendean race, effete and worn-out by in-breeding and 

 long prejudice, and in producing a hound that for good nose, 

 driving power, and endurance in chase, was far superior to the 

 heavy, soft-skinned, bell-mouthed animal described by du 

 Fouilloux in "La Venerie," and still found in the Vendean 

 country. He had bred them, he was wont to say, by perpetually 

 infusing fresh blood among the pack he inherited, and always 

 going to the stoutest kennels of which he had record. To St. 

 Prix he was especially indebted for many a useful cross ; and from 

 his kennel he had derived those grand, brown-grey or fulvous- 

 coloured hounds of which he was so justly proud. The Royal 

 Vendean hounds are described by the French writers as being 

 milk-white in colour, and fine as satin in their coats : but, if this 

 was the case, these characteristics have been long since out-bred 

 and obliterated in M. de Kergoorlas's pack, not a hound of which 

 had a patch of white upon him, nor was there a smooth coat among 

 them. The bold appearance of these hounds was quite remark- 

 able j standing 25 inches at the shoulder, and carrying their long- 

 feathered sterns well arched over their backs, with high crowns, 



