THE BOOK OF THE OTTER 



workers for future breeding operations. It is 

 perhaps unnecessary to state that you must have 

 a couple or two of entered hounds to begin with, 

 otherwise you are likely to walk as far as the Rev. 

 Jack Russell did before you find an otter. As 

 regards cross-bred hounds, the first cross may be 

 capital workers, but it is doubtful if much good 

 comes from breeding from them. 



One see all shapes, makes, and sizes of rough 

 hounds in the various packs, but the best bred ones 

 are big, upstanding animals, from twenty-two to 

 twenty-four or more inches in height. Speaking 

 from our own experience, we have found the 

 majority of rough hounds to be much more clumsy 

 and less active than foxhounds. Their feet, too, 

 are often inclined to be open and flat, and they lack 

 the heart and stamina of the foxhound. There 

 are, of course, exceptions, and we have come 

 across rough hounds that were capital workers, 

 but take them all round they are too big and 

 clumsy, at any rate for work on rough, rocky 



streams. Despite their rough jackets, they surfer 



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