XOTITIA VENATICA. 73 



work, would frequently draw sucli as he considered too fast for the rest 

 at three o'clock, and give them what he termed " stopping-halls," com- 

 posed of oatmeal and barley-flour, mixed with flesh, and rolled up. But 

 Berkshire was a slow and cold-scenting country, and the pace was not 

 expected to bo quite so good as it is upon grass. His huntsman, Wil- 

 liam Neverd, was quite of a different opinion on the subject, and told me 

 he thought they would have done much better if his master had given the 

 " slow 'uns" some quicksilver balls instead. In looking over hounds 

 some four or five hours after they have been fed, it is impossible to form 

 a correct judgment of the quantity of food they may have eaten, or what 

 their appearance and condition may be at ten o'clock the next morning. 

 Some digest quicker than others do : Rallywood, whose sides appear as 

 if he were only just fed, at two o'clock, may not have eaten any more 

 than Vanquisher, who looks at that hour almost fit to run a burst, yet 

 by the cover-side the next morning they will hoth look as '* level as 

 dice, " and the food of both of them will be upon their backs, instead of 

 inside their bellies, which it would have been had they been fed at three 

 or four o'clock in the afternoon of the day before. Some, whose diges- 

 tion is weak, void their food nearly in the same state as they swallow it ; 

 and many, from the same cause, are constantly in the habit of throwing 

 part of their meat oft' immediately after feeding : it is quite curious to 

 see how such hounds are continually watched by the others, to whom 

 they are as well known as the pieman would be near the gates of a 

 school ; for what purpose I leave my readers to guess. When hounds 

 are moved out after feeding, they should be walked about very slowly, 

 and allowed to empty themselves at their own pleasure, or many will 

 throw oft' part of their meat. And when the pack are going to be taken 

 from home to be ready for the next day's hunting, they ought to be fed 

 at least three hours before starting. When hounds lose their appetites, 

 and when they are in the habit of throwing oft' part of their meat imme- 

 diately after feeding, it is a certain sign that the digestive organs are 

 impaired ; this frequently ha2)pens to puppies when recovering from the 

 effects of the distemper, and even the older ones, whose constitutions are 

 none of the strongest, are at times afflicted with dyspepsia ; it arises 

 generally from too great an acidity in the contents of the stomach, to 

 which all animals whose aliment is mixed with vegetable matter are 

 more or less liable. This tendency in the stomach to produce acid may 

 be obviated by avoiding acescent aliments, and substituting animal food, 

 which is not so likely to excite undue fermentation ; this is evident by 

 turning those hounds out of the kennel which have become sickly and 

 dyspeptic, to feed on raw flesh, when they almost invariably in a few 

 days become sleek and fat. This plan, however, if for a long time or 

 very frequently pursued, is not the most likely means of either getting 

 them into condition, or keeping them so, even if they were in such con- 

 dition, as it cannot be long continued without corrupting the state of 

 their blood ; and, as vegetable food cannot be entirely dispensed with, 

 the excess of the acescency may be in a great measure avoided, by mix- 

 ing in each meal a small portion of common chalk, and administering to 

 the hounds thus affected to each a pill, containing eight grains of calomel 



