142 The Fox Terrier. 



has usually a tendency to be so, and the straight hair is the 

 softer and finer. There should be some amount of longish 

 hair on the legs, too, right down to the toes, and when 

 there is a deficiency in the coat in this respect, one may be 

 pretty certain that some crossed strain is in the blood of 

 the animal so handicapped. In attempting to produce 

 straight coats, modern breeders have gone to extremes, 

 and, according to their nature, produced fine ones, of a 

 texture like silk almost ; these are, again, likely to be thin, 

 and quite inadequate to keep out the water and cold. 

 Seldom do we see a wire-haired terrier with so close and 

 hard a jacket as some of the otter hounds possess, or even 

 owned by a few of the best hard-haired Scottish terriers. 

 Straighter they may be, but harder never, and what, 

 indeed, is the straightness but a useless beauty mark ? An 

 old bitch of Mr. A. Maxwell's (Durham), Tennis, had in her 

 day one of the best of coats, but for modern ideas there 

 was too much of it. Her chest and neck were well pro- 

 tected, still its very profuseness made it likely to carry too 

 much water on a damp day. 



In the kennels of the Kendal Otter Hounds there was once 

 a black and tan hound called Ragman, who ran for nine 

 seasons, and indeed he was so grey and worn with hard 

 work and care as to bear scarcely any resemblance to what 

 he was when first entered. He possessed the best water 

 and weather resisting coat I ever saw on any dog. With- 

 out being long enough to assist him as a bench hound, it 

 was simply perfect for the purpose for which it was 

 required protection from weather and water. Take down 

 the ribs, along the back, under the belly, on the head, any- 

 where, it was all there, hard as bristles, close as wool, a 

 little softer and closer underneath than near the surface ; 



