222 WOLF-HUNTING. 



The remaining couple of hounds, still missing, were not heard 

 of until ten days afterwards, when St. Prix received information 

 from the gendarmes at Guingamp that a party of chasseurs, 

 woodcock-shooting in the vale of the Frieux, in a forest formerly 

 belonging to the Dues de Penthievre, had met with an old dog- 

 wolf, so beaten and distressed by long travel that, with a charge 

 or two of small shot, they toppled him over and brought his 

 course to an end without any difficulty. This had scarcely been 

 accomplished, when the tongue of hounds was heard at no great 

 distance; and as the cry approached nearer and nearer, the 

 chasseurs perceived a couple only of strange hounds, toil-stricken 

 and leg-weary, but still struggling on and clinging to the line of 

 scent, as if determined at all cost to gain their blood. On 

 coming up to their prey, now powerless and gasping for life, 

 they could do little more than fall upon the carcase and there 

 lie, apparently well satisfied with the result, but utterly unable 

 from exhaustion to worry the dying brute or throw out a single 

 note in token of victory. The chasseurs found no difficulty in 

 securing the hounds, which, after discovering from the Louvetier 

 to whom they belonged, were forwarded to M. Kergoorlas's 

 kennels on the Loire, none the worse for their long and 

 adventurous chase. 



It may here be remarked that the practice of rounding the 

 ears and branding the sides of hounds is, so far as I know, never 

 followed in Lower Jkittany j but although it would be a great pity 

 to mutilate the long, silky, pendulous ear of the native hound, and 

 damage the appearance of his grand head, it must be owned he 

 would find great advantage from the process in the unceasing 

 cover-work to which he is subjected. As to the use of the 

 side-brand, in no country would the plan be more useful, for an 

 old dog-wolf, as just recorded, will often break country and go 

 straight away to a far distant forest, making light of twelve and 

 even fifteen leagues with the view of shaking off his pursuers 



