THE HOUND'S HIND-QUARTERS 



not long since we were out with a fell pack, and 

 when going to open a gate for the huntsman, 

 which formed the entrance to a covert fenced by 

 a huge stone wall, a little bitch stepped quietly 

 out and flitted over the said wall like a swallow. 

 The huntsman evidently divined our feelings, 

 for he turned with a grin and said, " There's 

 nae wall going to stop her.'' Now this particular 

 bitch is under 20 inches, and of a truth there is 

 no fence in the country that will stop her, nor 

 several of her relations either. Bone, weight, 

 height, and a lengthy body, never yet helped a 

 hound to surmount obstacles at speed. In 

 actual practice it is always the small, compact, 

 short-coupled hounds which fly over the walls, 

 and return to kennels with their sterns gaily 

 carried. Granted that drive is a very necessary 

 quality in a pack of hounds, it alone will not carry 

 hounds over big fences. The correct anatomical 

 conformation must be there to enable hounds 

 to use their limbs properly, and this conformation 

 is more often found in the small hound than the 

 big one. Absolute freedom of action is what is 

 required for quick fencing, and the more per- 

 fectly built a hound is the greater freedom in the 

 above respect will he possess. 



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