THE HOUND. 229 



era hound, which it exactly resembles in almost every 

 particular, unless it be the crooklegs, the dewlap, and the 

 pendulous jaws. 



It has the color, the soft lustrous eye, the long soft 

 drooping ears, " that sweep away the morning dew," and 

 the cry, though small as compared with that of the great 

 hound, yet tunable, sonorous, deep, and matched like bells. 



There is no prettier sport in the world, on a small 

 scale, than to hunt rabbits where they are abundant, with 

 these industrious, active and indefatigable little dogs, and 

 few more interesting sights than a pack of the merry little 

 pigmies in full cry, running literally so that a table-cloth 

 may cover them, and following the devious mazes of their 

 timorous quarry with undeviating instinct through fern, 

 bush, brake and coppice. 



Of the improved English foxhound I have never seen 

 any in America, the animals here used partaking largely 

 of the Talbot blood, color and note, and having his 

 qualities of excellent nose, great endurance, indefatigable 

 industry, and the habit of sticking to their scent, day in 

 and day out, until the fox is worn out rather than run 

 down. 



The American foxhound as used in pursuit of the fox 

 in Maryland, Virginia, and other Southern States, and of 

 the deer in the Carolinas, Georgia, and wherever deer-hunt- 

 ing on horseback or by driving is practised, is in fact actually 

 the hound, unaltered and identical, of Beckford and Som- 

 erville. I am of opinion, moreover, that he is the best 

 adapted hound for this country, where so much of the 

 hunting is in difficult, intricate, entangled woodlands, 



