The Basset. 85 



separate tracks of different animals, unless at once stopped and put 

 together on the same one, they will each follow its find, and let the 

 shooter, or shooters, do his or their best. That is why a shooter who is 

 fond of that sort of sport rarely owns more than one or two of these 

 hounds. One is enough, two may be handy in difficult cases, but more 

 would certainly entail confusion, precisely because each one of them will 

 rely only on the evidence of his own senses. 



" I have now several clever bassets djambes torses, in my mind's eye, 

 and their general description would be about as follows : Height between 

 lOin. and 15in. at shoulder, longish barrels, very crooked forelegs, with 

 little more than an inch or two of daylight between the knees, stout 

 thighs, gay sterns, conical heads, long faces, ears long enough to overlap 

 each other by an inch or two (and more sometimes) when both were 

 drawn over the nose, heavy-headed rather, with square muzzles, plenty of 

 flews and dewlap, eyes deep set under heavy wrinkles, forepaws wide and 

 well turned out, markings hare-pied and white, black-tan and white, tan 

 and white, black with tan eyebrows, and tan legs and belly, &c. in 

 short, all the varieties of hound markings will be found among them. They 

 have excellent tongues for their size, and when in good training and good 

 condition they will hunt every day, and seem to thrive on it. They are 

 very fond of the gun, and many are cunning enough to * ring ' the game, 

 if missed when breaking covert, back again to the guns until it is shot. 

 Some of these bassets are so highly prized that no amount of money will 

 buy them, and, as a breed, it may safely be asserted that it is probably 

 the purest now in existence in France. They hunt readily deer, roebuck, 

 wild boars, wolves, foxes, hares, rabbits, &c., but if entered exclusively 

 for one species of quarry and kept to it, they never leave it to run riot 

 after anything else. I have seen one, when hunting a hare in a park, 

 running through fifty rabbits and never noticing them. They go slowly, 

 and give you plenty of time to take your station for a shot hence, their 

 great value in the estimation of shooters. They are chiefly used for 

 smallish woods, furze fields, and the like, because if uncoupled in a forest 

 they do not drive their game fast enough, and though eventually they 

 are bound to bring it out, yet the long time they would take in so doing 

 would tell against the sport. Moreover, large forests are cut about by 

 ditches, and here and there streamlets, boulders, and rocks intervene, 

 which difficulty the short crooked-legged hound would be slow in 



