WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 107 



long faces, and silky ears, and above all, with good legs and feet 

 below, they looked all over a working lot, and admirably adapted 

 for the rough game and rough country in which they were bred. 



Kergoorlas, as we jogged along together towards the meet 

 at Koenig, took great pains minutely to describe the merits of 

 individual hounds to me ; and seemed to be highly pleased with 

 the favourable remarks I could not help making on their grand 

 and workmanlike appearance. 



" In colour," said he, " they are assimilated to that of the boar,, 

 the wolf, and the fox, the wild beasts they were bred to pursue : 

 and, if I may venture to say so, in fierceness and fleetness they 

 are a fair match for the stoutest of those animals." 



" I doubt it not," I replied ; " for they look strong enough 

 and bold enough to run down a buffalo, and hold him after- 

 wards." 



" Not quite that : but it is really wonderful how firmly they 

 will hold a boar, no matter how big or how fierce he may be : 

 they take him fore and aft, under the shoulder and behind the 

 hams ; and when four or five couple have fixed their fangs into 

 his hide, no power of his can shake them off; nor will they 

 relax their grip till I have buried my couteau in his heart's core. 

 But sometimes, alas ! a courageous young hound will catch him 

 by the ear ; and then follows the usual sad result a fearful 

 gash, that too often ends fatally." 



Considering that M. de St. Prix on the previous day had only 

 worked four or five couple of hounds at a time, I ventured to ask 

 Kergoorlas if the pack, numbering eighteen couple, was not a 

 dangerously large one for the adventurous work of hunting the 

 boar? 



"St. Prix would think so, unquestionably," was his ready 

 reply ; " but he lives in perpetual dread of accident to his hounds ; 

 and his misery, when one is wounded, is quite painful to witness. 

 Proper caution is of course commendable ; but, to forecast the 



