WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 143 



for which the hounds were now pointing ; and, as it appeared like 

 a vast amphitheatre, having its area encompassed with granite 

 boulders, piled one above another, we were able to command, as 

 spectators, every yard of the ground from our present position ; 

 so while Shafto, St. Prix, Kergoorlas, and others moved farther 

 down the valley, taking the relays nearer to the scene of action, 

 Keryfan and myself remained stationary on the moor, watching 

 every stroke of the two hounds with a field-glass, and expecting 

 every moment to see a grand find. 



Hitherto the hounds had carried the drag together into the 

 very centre of the semicircle ; but suddenly they now divided, 

 the tan-coloured bitch, Harmonic, holding one line straight up for 

 the summit of the clitter, while the dark badger-pied Veteran 

 owned to another equally hot scent round the outside edge of the 

 rocky ground. " The pigs have divided," whispered Keryfan, 

 quietly ; " the smaller ones not caring, probably, to occupy the 

 same quarters with the larger pigs ; or, it may be, the shorter legs 

 of the former were unable to surmount the massive boulders, and 

 they've entered the clitter from the upper side." 



This was undoubtedly the case j for we could plainly see 

 Harmonie, though throwing her tongue vigorously, was making 

 but slow progress in her upward course ; again and again, in 

 clambering the face of a boulder, over which the pigs had 

 evidently passed, the brave hound missed her hold and came 

 toppling backwards to the ground still, she never flagged a 

 moment ; still pointing upwards, scrambling, climbing, and 

 springing over perpendicular rocks and chasms that would have 

 made an Alpine guide shudder in his shoes. Her perseverance 

 was marvellous ; but, withal, in ten minutes she had scarcely 

 advanced twenty yards, and the main stronghold of the clitter 

 was yet a good hundred yards above her. In the meantime 

 Veteran was lashing his stern and making his tambourine tongue 

 ring through the gorge ; and now gaining the head of the clitter, 



