go British Dogs. 



stones, or buries it lightly in the ground, and makes the dog find it. 

 When he has done so, he gives him a piece of bread. This sort of thing 

 being repeated until the basset looks readily for the truffle, he is then 

 taken to those places in the neighbourhood of which truffles are known 

 or suspected to be, and the peasant, pretending to throw away the usual 

 truffle, tells the dog, " Cherche! cherche! " (seek ! seek !) whereupon the 

 little hound, diligently ferreting about the ground, soon comes upon a 

 truffle scent, and begins digging for it. At the first sign of that process 

 the peasant relieves him and digs out the precious tubercle, and so on. 

 There are some other species of dogs also used for that sort of work ; 

 but the basset, owing to his acute power of scent, is mostly preferred by 

 the professional chercheurs de truffes. Some of these men, however, use 

 pigs for the purpose. 



' ' Concerning those French bassets which have from time to time been 

 exhibited at our shows, some of them have shown fair points, but none 

 of them have had the very long ears which one will notice with the 

 bassets in the foresters' kennels on the Continent. Moreover, in the 

 classes set aside for bassets, I do not remember having seen a good basset 

 cijambes torses, though there were one or two fair specimens of half- 

 crooked, and straight-legged bassets. If my memory serves me right, 

 the Earl of Onslow's were straight-legged, half rough-coated bassets, 

 with remarkably short ears. Mr. Millais' Model was a black, white, 

 and tan smooth-coated basset, with very fair properties the best I had 

 seen in England, so far, and a Vendean basset was a regular griffon ; I 

 forget now the state of his legs, but his coat was just the sort of jacket 

 for the rough woods of Brittany and Vendee. 



" On the other hand, in the classes for dachshunds, I have seen some 

 first-rate black and tan, and also red, bassets a janibes torses, all smooth- 

 coated. No doubt, eventually, classes will be set apart for each individual 

 breed, and in such a case there is a very fine field yet open for an enter- 

 prising exhibitor wishing to produce bassets in open court." 



Measurements, &c., of celebrated French Bassets : 



The Earl of Onslow's Nestor : Age, 2 years 10 months ; weight, 391b. ; 

 height at shoulder, 14in. ; length from nose to set on of tail, 36in. ; 

 length of tail, 12in. ; girth of chest, 24in. ; girth of loin, 22in. ; girth of 

 head, 15|in. ; girth of forearm, GJin. ; length of head from occiput to tip 

 of nose, 9in. ; girth of muzzle midway between eyes and tip of nose, 9in. 



