The Deerhound. 127 



still he says that the breed of Deerhounds which 

 " had nearly become extinct, or, at any rate, was very 

 rare a few years ago, has now become comparatively 

 plentiful in all the Highland districts, owing to the 

 increased extent of the preserved forests and the 

 trouble taken by different proprietors and masters of 

 mountain shootings who have collected and bred 

 this noble race of dogs regardless of expense and 

 difficulty." Not a word about Macneill's crosses or of 

 those of Glengarry ; and I am happy in the belief 

 that our present race of deerhounds does not contain 

 the slightest taint of bloodhound or foxhound blood 

 for over a century. If it did, surely the black and 

 tan colour and the greyhound markings would con- 

 tinually be appearing. I have yet to see a black and 

 tan deerhound, or one similar to a foxhound in hue. 



What an excellent picture St. John draws of 

 Malcolm: u as fine a looking lad, of thirty-five, as 

 ever stepped on heather," and of his two hounds, 

 Bran and Oscar, whose descriptions tally with what 

 I shall later on give to be those of a deerhound. 

 There were no bloodhound and foxhound in Bran or 

 Oscar, and well might such handsome, useful, faithful 

 creatures, or similar ones, be worth the ^50 a-piece, 

 they would have brought even forty- five years ago. 



Since St. John wrote some deer forests have been 

 broken up into smaller holdings, and to this, perhaps, 



