THE BASSET-HOUND 205 



crooked fore legs, 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 ; fore paws 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, 

 etc. 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, etc., but if entered exclusively 

 to 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 

 surmounting. He is, therefore, not so often used there as for 

 smaller coverts, where his voice can throughout the hunt be heard, 

 and thereby direct the shooters which post of vantage to take. 



As regards the coats of Bassets a jambes torses, there are both 

 rough, half-rough, and smooth-coated specimens ; but the last two 

 predominate greatly ; in fact, I have but rarely seen very rough 

 Bassets a jambes torses. I saw three once, in the Ardennes. They 

 were very big hounds for Bassets, and were used chiefly to drive 

 wolves, roebuck, and wild boars. They were a poll dur with a 

 vengeance, and, when ' riled,' their backs were up like bristles. Of 

 course, in these matters the chasseurs breed their hounds according 

 to the ground they have to hunt over; and, consequently, in 

 provinces of comparatively easy coverts, such as vineyards, small 

 woods, furze fields, etc., smooth-coated or half rough-coated Bassets 

 are in universal demand. In Brittany, Vendee, Alsace, Lorraine, 

 Luxemburg, on the contrary, wherever the coverts are extensive 



