1 2 8 SPOK TLVG A D VEX T 17 RES 



in managing them when once they got on the trail of a 

 quarry; otherwise he liked them very much for their work. 

 They were good all-round dogs, that would do well at any 

 game, and it seemed to me that they were well suited for 

 general hunting in a country where there is so much variety 

 and abundance of large animals. 



The true wolf dog, one that has the size, weight, strength, 

 speed, courage, and endurance to cope alone with the large gray 

 species is not yet known in the West, and, until it is, persons 

 must be content to hunt it witli any dogs that will chase it 

 and bring it to bay, till the sportman can finish it with his 

 knife, rifle, or revolver. If the Irish wolf-hound is ever to be 

 revived, that seems to be the country in which it will be brought 

 to perfection, as everything there is favourable to its full 

 development. If that animal is nothing more than a large 

 deer-hound, however, as some writers assert, it cannot cope 

 singly with a wolf weighing from one hundred to one hundred 

 and fifty pounds, as it would lack weight and strength, 

 though it might possess nose and speed. Boar-hounds would 

 make better wolf dogs than the famous Irish breed which are 

 sometimes exhibited pictorially in sporting newspapers, and 

 would be far more serviceable for general purposes. 



Two of the best wolf dogs I saw in the West were a cross 

 respectively between a deer-hound and a mastiff, and a grey- 

 hound and a bulldog, with a dash of bull terrier blood. When 

 these two hunted together and managed to come in contact 

 with a wolf, one seized it by the throat while the other 

 seized one of its hind legs, and between them both it was 

 killed within the space of half an hour, or so seriously 

 crippled that it fell an easy victim to the hunter's revolver. 

 Though very brave and skilful fighters, they lacked speed 

 to bring the animal to bay in a long run, and if they did 

 not overtake it inside a distance of two or three miles, they 

 generally gave up the chase, as they could not keep in sight, 

 and they did not have sufficient nose to follow it readily by its 

 scent. Their retirement from the chase is not to be wondered 

 at, for I have known wolves to run twenty or thirty miles 

 before a fast pack of fox-hounds, and escape after all ; but I 



