76 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



durance. That big fawn and white hound is best at sighting. 

 Dolly Varden always runs just back of Black Peter, who is 

 great at turning the hare, Dolly keeping just far enough 

 behind to receive the hare when turned. She makes one 

 grab for Jack's loin, and throws him high in the air to alight 

 among the others. This "running smart" on Dolly Varden's 

 part excludes her from field coursing, because the hound 

 that turns puss is given more credit that the one that kills. 

 So one hound after another is discussed. Sometimes the talk 

 runs to heredity. "That's the grandson of the greatest hound 

 I ever owned and he is as near perfection as I ever expect 

 to get in a single hound ; he has won a number of bench trials, 

 but unfortunately he inherits, through his granddam, faulty 

 sight. If he jumps a Jack himself, he will stay by him to the 

 last, but if any other hound gets the start of him he loses 

 interest in the game and stops as soon as he begins to tire." 

 "This looks," we ventured to say, "more like jealousy than 

 a question of sight." "Perhaps you are right," said Mr. 

 Bartel, "but whatever it is, good as he is individually, I will 

 never breed from him nor sell him to anyone else to breed 

 from." 



The writer mentions these things to show how thoroughly 

 alive a man must be to the subject of breeding, as well as 

 how intimately he must know the characteristics of each and 

 every member of the pack, and back of all that, the personal 

 knowledge of the faults and virtues for generations before 

 he can hope to make a permanent success of hound breeding, 

 or the breeding of any other animal. It is tliis very knowledge 

 and these facts that have made the breeding of domestic 

 animals so successful in England, where breeds come down 

 from great-grandsire to great-grandson. It also illustrates 

 why in America the breeding of all domestic animals is still 

 in its infancy. We are a new people, few of us have even 

 fathers before us who bred the same animals that we are 



