FEI.I. HOUNDS 



by nature, i.e., backwards, by means of the 

 fairly long, sloping pastern. We have heard 

 certain Masters of hounds express the view that 

 the round, club-like foot of the standard type 

 wears better than the hare foot, for work in an 

 ordinary enclosed hunting country. This seems 

 rather an extraordinary statement, when we con- 

 sider the fact that for many generations the hare 

 foot has been universal in fell hounds, and has 

 been proved by years of actual test to be the only 

 one to stand the wear and tear of hunting over the 

 roughest country in England. A hound is a 

 dog, bred and trained to hunt certain quarry, 

 and the best t3rpe of foot is that which nature has 

 provided the animal with. There are few if 

 any dogs which work longer, faster, or over such 

 rough ground as the shepherd's curs in Lakeland ; 

 yet one seldom sees one with sore feet, even after 

 several days of hot-weather work on such ground 

 as say Helvellyn, or any other of the high fells. 

 The best of these cur dcgs possess most ex- 

 cellent hare feet, and if you ask any experienced 

 fell shepherd he will tell you that they are the best 

 type of feet for the work the dogs have to do. 

 Now a true fell hound stands on exactly the same 

 kind of feet, which are admirably suited to the 

 work the hound has to do. A shepherd's dog 

 works quite as well in an ordinary enclosed coun- 

 try as it does on the fells, and so do the fell hounds, 

 for all the I^akeland packs have a certain amount 

 of low country which they hunt every season. 

 One could given endless examples of hare-footed 

 hounds whose feet were as sound as ever after 

 years of work on the fells. One example will 

 suffice however, and that was a hound of the 

 heavier fell type, which ran up for nine seasons. 

 This hound never had a day's sickness in its life, 



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