12 THE AMERICAN FOXHOUND 



country. If they were ever let out of their kennel for exercise, 

 they would go to a fox-range even if it was several miles away. 

 I haven't got any of them now. I unloaded the last of them on 

 a kinsman down in south-western Arkansas. I gave them to 

 him, and then fooled him into paying the freight. 



Now in breeding and training a pack of foxliounds for red fox 

 hunting I would get the style of hound that suited me the best. 

 Some hunters prefer a dog of medium speed, that will run a red 

 fox all night and put him in a hole some time the next day. 

 Night hunting is all right to test the mettle and endurance of a 

 hound. It is no time to test a hound's speed. For those who 

 prefer that style of hunting I have no criticisms to make. I do 

 not see a great deal of sport in night hunting. Of course the 

 hound, in a night race, that will hammer his game all night, is 

 a hound of endurance, but I do not think he is better than the 

 hound that can start up his game in the day-time and kill it in a 

 fair open chase. I do not think the mere length of time a hound 

 runs is any test of liis endurance. It is the distance he covers in 

 a given length of time. While the dog that runs in the lead 

 covers more ground and does more work, as a rule, the hound 

 that is in the best condijtion will run the longest, if you could 

 jump one fox after another, so as test his endurance to the core. 

 If a pack of hounds be pitted in a daylight race with another 

 pack having more heels and speed, one of two tilings invariably 

 happens. The slower hound is left to the rear, or if he be game 

 enough to try to contend for the lead, as he should, liis heart 

 will be broken and his boasted endurance gone, while the faster 

 hound, although he may not be able to run as long as the slower 

 liound, when the game is killed will be as fresh as a daisy. 

 Salvator ran a mile in 1: 35, and that is the world's record. Dan 

 Patch paced a mile in 1 : 56I/4. How many miles could he go at 

 that gait? Yet he could be driven slower and slower until one 

 could drive him twenty, forty, or fifty miles in a day. 



I want a high-headed, dashy hound, one that hunts his terri- 

 tory like a good pointer, in a gallop. I do not want him to fool 

 around with a cold trail. Of all the abominations in dog-flesh is 

 the slow trailer that turns over every leaf with his nose, and 

 every time he turns a leaf, lifts his voice toward the ceinilean 

 skies. I do not want a dog to give much tongue in trailing. I 

 want him to hit his track and run on it, if the scent will allow. 

 A pack of fast, dashy trailers will jump their game quicker, 



