Modern Dogs. 



tude for his peculiar kind of work, the latter at one 

 period of our history being of a particularly useful 

 character. He has been much used as a cross to 

 improve the olfactory organs, the voice, and the size 

 and strength of other hounds, particularly of otter 

 hounds and foxhounds ; but he has always had 

 admirers who kept him for his own sake — because of 

 his handsome and noble appearance, and because he 

 was faithful and affectionate. Others encouraged 

 him because he bore a vulgar and undeserved 

 character for ferocity not attained by any other 

 breed of dog. 



Doubtless his name — " bloodhound," or sleuth- 

 hound — had a great deal to do with this, especially 

 as he had obtained a reputation for ability to find a 

 man, be he either thief, political offender, or other- 

 wise, by hunting the scent or line of his footsteps, as 

 another hound would hunt the fox or hare, saving 

 and excepting that he would not worry and attempt 

 to eat his quarry. Having run him, as it were, " to 

 ground," he would be contented with ''baying" his 

 man until his capture came to be effected. Certain 

 authors, to gratify their own ends, or serve their own 

 purpose, have repeatedly drawn upon their imagina- 

 tion in detailing, with an exactness worthy of a better 

 cause, horrible scenes between bloodhounds and 

 their ''prey," ending in the death or serious injury of 



