228 DOGS 



As the beagle is the dwarf of hunting dogs, the 

 stately deerhound is the giant. Sinewy and compact, 

 of massive muscle, he is a magnificent type of the 

 stalwart Highlander. Now, how^ever, he is used 

 in only a few of the deer-forests ; his swift pur- 

 suit is thought to drive the deer out of bounds, 

 and slower dogs are employed on the trail of 

 the wounded hart. Nowadays, perhaps the finest 

 specimens are to be found in the south, though, 

 strange to say, he has never become fashionable, and 

 fetches nothing like the prices of St. Bernards. 

 Unlike the English greyhound, he is intelligent and 

 eminently companionable ; he becomes strongly 

 attached to his master, and if a boy has the rare 

 good luck to possess one, he is a friend to be 

 proud of. I fondly remember one I owned, and 

 was very reluctantly compelled to part with. I 

 bought him when a kennel in a Ross-shire forest 

 was broken up. He had attained full strength, 

 and had already made himself famous by pulling 

 down a '' cold " stag — that is, an unwounded one — 

 a very remarkable feat. The deerhound is rough 

 and shaggy as a rule ; Oscar was smooth, and they 

 say that when there is a smooth puppy in a litter, 

 he is always the strongest. He stood thirty-three 

 inches at the shoulder, and that is an excessive 

 height ; thirty inches is about the average of a 

 powerful and perfect dog. But Oscar, unusually 

 tall as he was, did not run to light loins or feeble 

 limbs. It was fortunate that he was of a singularly 

 amiable temper, for he was a formidable enemy 



