THOUGHTS ON HUNTERS 



the knee, and add strength where strength is 

 most required. The square-shaped knee, sharply 

 defined in its outline and clean at the back and 

 the front, is the type that the author regards as 

 the one best fitted to serve a hunter. It combines 

 du7'ability with economy of material, and is 

 calculated to stand greater strain than any other 

 form of knee. In the selection of a hunter it is 

 customary to forcibly flex the knees, in order to 

 ascertain whether there is perfect freedom of 

 movement. In addition to the two main joints 

 in the knee, there are other numerous small joints 

 of a gliding nature, formed between the small 

 bones of the knee, all of which play a significant 

 part in the mechanism of this region. Both for 

 appearance and utility, the cannon must be of 

 proportionate length, wide in its articular areas, 

 and when the hand is passed down it, impart the 

 sensation of there being nothing but skin, bone, 

 and tendon, in other words, "clean". The 

 more bone in this region the better, and much 

 the same remark applies to the pastern, the dis- 

 position of which must be neither upright nor 

 yet too oblique. If a hunter's pasterns are too 

 upright, they are, as a rule, in addition, too 



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