DEER HUNTING. 251 



One of them, single-handed, will pull down a Red Stag of 

 the first head, or throttle a Wolf; and I would back a brace to 

 bring to bay any Elk that ever ranged westward of the Cross- 

 timbers, in a mile's course. 



They are intelligent, handsome, hardy dogs, and will be found 

 vastly useful. The Newfoundland, or Sheep-dog cross, may be 

 dispensed with ; but it renders them handsomer, hardier, and 

 more intelligent than the mere double cross of Qreyhound upon 

 Foxhound, — it also gives them some of the powers of the water- 

 dog, and adds to their courage. A dog so bred, it will be re- 

 membered, combines, in some degree, the qualities of each of 

 the three great natural divisions into which zoologists have dis- 

 tinguished the order dog, canis, — viz., veloces, the swift runners, 

 entirely or nearly devoid of scent ; pitgnaces, or fighters ; and 

 sagaces, or intelligent, — having, in their composition of four 

 crosses, two of speed, one and a-half of intelligence, and one- 

 half o^ pugnacity, from the Foxhound. 



I should earnestly recommend my friends and readers of the 

 Western Prairie States and Territories, to try this combination 

 — I could almost vouch for their compensating the trouble, by 

 the sport they would shew ; but, apart from these, I should urge 

 the gentry of St. Louis, and places similarly situate, to- try a 

 kennel or two of Greyhounds. I can discover no reason why, 

 among a population so spirited and so fond of field sports as the 

 Western men. Greyhound coursing of Deer, with all its excite- 

 ment of plates, cups, matches, and handicaps, should not be got 

 up in as fine style as at Swaff"ham, Malton, or Newmarket, and 

 in so much finer, as the Hart is a nobler animal than the Hare, 

 and the illimitable prairies of the West a wider field for sports- 

 manship than the Yorkshire Wolds, or the Chalky Heaths of 

 Suffolk. 



Before closing this branch of my subject, it will be naturally 

 expected that I should say something concerning the habits and 

 the mode of pursuing the Black-tailed Deer. In truth, how- 

 ever, so little is known, comparatively speaking, of this fine 

 Deer, that I cannot enlarge upon the topic. It is found only 



