PKAIRIE SPORTS. ^ 255 



is one of the most valuable and delightful books in the English 

 language, states distinctly, either of a Hind — the female of the 

 Red Deer — -or of a cow Mc^ose, which he had an opportunity 

 of examining, but I think of the former, — I have not his book 

 beside me for reference, — that, on an orange being offered to it, 

 it smelt and snuffed at it alternately with the nostrils and the 

 subocular sinus ; and further, that he saw the same animal 

 breathe through these sinuses for a considerable length of time, 

 while drinking very greedily, with both nostrils completely 

 submerged in the water. 



An observation of the habits, in the live animal, in such cases, 

 is far more satisfactory than any examination by means of dis- 

 section, as small ducts may easily be overlooked, or their nature 

 mistaken. 



I understand that a large herd of these noble Deer are kept 

 in a state of semi-domestication, by a gentleman who possesses 

 a fine park and demesne in the neighborhood of Lexington, 

 Kentucky ; by his aid, this disputed matter might readily be 

 investigated to demonstration. 



Neither the Elk, nor the Bison, are ordinarily hunted with 

 hounds, — the latter, I believe, never. The former has been run 

 to bay, with great success, by my friend, Mr. Sibley, of Men- 

 DOTA, near St. Peters, on the Upper Mississippi ; by aid of his 

 celebrated Scottish Deer-hounds, Lion and Boston, on which fact 

 I, in no small degree, found my opinion of the great sport that 

 might be had, and the great addition that might be made to the 

 spirit and excitement of Western hunting, by the introduction 

 of this fine and gallant breed of dogs. 



The only other instance I know of the use of dogs -with the 

 Elk, was in the case of the great monster killed in Louisiana, as 

 desciibed above. 



There can be no doubt, however, that the use of dogs is per- 

 fectly applicable, either to the Elk or the Bison. The latter 

 animal is, we are assured, constantly assailed by Wolves, and 

 no person who is at all acquainted with the wonderful instinct 

 frequently displayed by the parlicular breed of dogs I have de- 



