THE AMERICAN FOXHOUND 55 



are successful red fox hounds, but run too wide and fast for 

 grays. As a pack they are not successful gray fox hounds. They 

 will run over too far, and as they cast forward on a run-over or 

 loss, instead of backward, they run a gray ordinarily about like 

 a rabbit that dodges and tacks. This one quality of casting wide 

 and ahead, in my opinion, is one of the qualities so necessary to 

 catch a red fox, and I have known them time and again to pull 

 away from a pack of otherwise good hounds, who would go back 

 to pick up a loss and never catch up again. I have often heard 

 the owners of such hounds express wonder and chagrin at their 

 liounds being seemingly thrown out on a loss. 



This strain of hounds for years have successfully run the red 

 fox. To prevent inbreeding to an injurious extent, and to inject 

 new blood, I imported a pair of English hounds. By experi- 

 menting I came to the conclusion that a proper amount of 

 English blood somewhat improved the size, and perhaps the 

 stamina or bottom of them. It required time and patience to 

 determine just where to stop the cross. Mr. Norvin T. Harris of 

 Lyndon, Ky., in 1901, presented me with a bitch sired by 

 Champion Big Strive (one-half English) out of Lygia, she by 

 Jay Bird, out of an English-July bitch, La Tosca. Big Strive, 

 Lygia, Jay Bird and La Tosca were all field trial winners at 

 National Foxliunters' Association meets, and some of them at 

 trials in Massachusetts of the Brunswick Foxhound Club. This 

 bitch proved to be exceptionally fast and thoroughly game, a 

 beautifully built hound, fine style and carriage, and altogether a 

 hound of the first class. Her greatest faults w^ere timidity, and 

 feet that got sore from hard running. Both these qualities 

 seemed to be lost in her progeny by increasing the English 

 blood. The English have strong constitutions and are ravenous 

 feeders. By transmitting these qualities to progeny of timid 

 bitches, and those lacking in strong constitutions, I found I 

 overcame these objectionable traits. By experimenting in this 

 way for years, I convinced myself that I had improved the 

 original strain and got about what I thought to be the best. 

 The qualities, traits, and individuality, and also the color of the 

 original hounds, have been largely preserved. 



These are the Arkansas Travellers of to-day, and are mostly 

 the original color of black and tan, occasionally there will come 

 white, black and tan puppies, and now and then a red one. 

 They have been hunted in Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Missouri, 



