234 Hunting the Grisly 



who may be known as old man Prindle. Old 

 man Prindle had been in the Union Army, 

 and his Republicanism was of the blackest 

 and most uncompromising type. There was 

 one point, however, on which the two came 

 together. They were exceedingly fond of 

 hunting with hounds. The Judge had three 

 or four track-hounds, and four of what he 

 called swift-hounds, the latter including one 

 pure-bred greyhound bitch of wonderful 

 speed and temper, a dun-colored yelping ani- 

 mal which was a cross between a greyhound 

 and a fox-hound, and two others that were 

 crosses between a greyhound and a wire- 

 haired Scotch deer-hound. Old man Prin- 

 dle's contribution to the pack consisted of two 

 immense brindled mongrels of great strength 

 and ferocious temper. They were unlike any 

 dogs I have ever seen in this country. Their 

 mother herself was a cross between a bull 

 mastiff and a Newfoundland, while the father 

 was described as being a big dog that be- 

 longed to a "Dutch Count." The "Dutch 

 Count" was an outcast German noble, who 

 had drifted to the West, and, after failing in 

 the mines and failing in the cattle country, 

 had died in a squalid log shanty while striv- 

 ing to eke out an existence as a hunter among 



