290 HUNTING TOURS. 



whichever they might find, that renders it so 

 difficult, nay, impossible, to define the data 

 when they were made steady to their game. 

 Somerville gives confirmation of this in his 

 remark — 



" A diff 'rent hound for ev'ry diff 'rent chase 

 Select with judgment." 



He could not have expressed himself so elo- 

 quently and classically as he did on many 

 essential points had he not been well up in 

 the " noble science." 



Highly amusing are the imaginations of 

 naturalists that the primitive variety of the 

 canine tribe bore the character of sheep dogs ; 

 and then, again, to what description of sheep 

 dog did they set their affections, for they are 

 as widely different as two animals of the same 

 species well can be? There is the Scotch 

 collie dog, with smooth coat, sharp nose, erect 

 ears, and bushy tail, barely more than fifteen 

 or sixteen inches high, to be compared with 

 the breed more commonly used in England, 

 measuring five or six and twenty inches in 

 height, with curly coat, prehensile ears, and a 

 bob tail, and I shall be glad to be enlightened 

 as to which variety of these two is the honour 



