THE BLOODHOUND. 



One of these little canine pets is to be seen in the British Museum, and always 

 attracts much attention from the visitors. Indeed, if it were not in so dignified a 

 locality, it would be generally classed with the mermaid, the flying serpent, and the 

 Tartar lamb, as an admirable example of clever workmanship. It is precisely like 

 those white woollen toy Dogs which sit upon a pair of bellows, and when pressed 

 give forth a nondescript sound, intended to do duty for the legitimate canine bark. 

 To say that it is no larger than these toys would be hardly true, for I have seen in 

 the shop windows many a toy Dog which exceeded in size the veritable Mexican 

 Lapdog. 



BLOODHOUND. -Caais familiar is. 



THE MAGNIFICENT animal which is termed the BLOODHOUND, on account of its pecul- 

 iar facility for tracking a wounded animal through all the mazes of its devious course, 

 is very scarce in England, as there is but little need for these Dogs for its chief 

 employment. 



In the "good old times " this animal was largely used by thief-takers, for the purpose 

 of tracking and securing" the robbers who in those days made the country unsafe, and 

 laid the roads under a black mail. Sheep-stealers, who were much more common when 

 the offence was visited with capital punishment, were frequently detected by the delicate 

 nose of the BLOODHOUND, which would, when once laid on the scent, follow it up with 

 unerring precision, unravelling the single trail from among a hundred crossing footsteps, 

 and only to be baffled by water or blood. Water holds no scent, and if the hunted man 

 is able to take a long leap into the water, and to get out again in some similar fashion, he 

 may set at defiance the Bloodhound's nose. ^.If blood be spilt upon the track, the delicate 



