226 THE AMERICAN BOOK OF THE DOG. 



such beauty, and of such excellence for practical work, as 

 I had never before seen, and I made up my mind to procure 

 this specimen under any circumstances. After we returned 

 from a hunt, and were sitting in the game-keeper' s cabin, 

 talking of nothing but Dachshunds, of course, I mentioned 

 that I would like to buy Peter from him. The good- 

 hearted man looked at me and said : 



" That dog you can not buy at any price. I am a poor 

 man, as everybody knows, but as long as I have ti bite of 

 bread left, Peter stays with me. ' ' 



Well, I never put the question to him again, and I was 

 assured that I could not offer Peter a better home than the 

 one he had. The price offered for the dog was nearly equal 

 to the game-keeper's annual salary. 



Besides hunting foxes and badgers, the Dachshund is 

 used extensively for tracking wounded deer and roebuck, 

 and no surer trailer lives. The dog is taken by the line, 

 and he follows a track slowly, but as infallibly as can 

 be, and it seldom happens that he fails to succeed. When 

 running loose, he will give a few short barks when the 

 game is found, and then start at once to lick the wound; 

 then commence to eat, and will eat until he can not eat 

 any more. 



This is a bad habit, but all Dachshunds possess it. But 

 you must take these dogs as they are, with all their good 

 qualities, and with all their many faults. I therefore 

 recommend the use of the line when tracking wounded 

 game. Besides the above mentioned, the Dachshund can 

 be used successfully to hunt minks and other vermin. 

 When allowed to run at will, he will hunt anything, from a 

 mouse up. 



Now that I have illustrated the value of the Dachs- 

 hund for Europe, let us see what success we can have with 

 him here in America, for he is no more a stranger among 

 us. We have imported as fine stock as Europe could pro- 

 duce though, as stated, we have had great difficulty in 

 buying them and hundreds of them are now in the hands 

 of practical American sportsmen. Many are dissatisfied 



