THE FOXHOUND. 



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delicate scent, and high courage, approach as near to absolute perfection as can well 

 be imagined. 



By thus improving the condition of the domesticated Dog, the country has been 

 benefited, for it is impossible to improve any inhabitant of a country without conferring 

 a benefit on the land in which it is reared. Still, supposing that half the sums which 

 are annually expended on training Dogs for the amusement of the upper classes had 

 been employed in improving the condition of the uneducated and neglected poor, and 

 had been backed by equal judgment, I cannot but fancy that the country would have re- 

 ceived a greater benefit than is conferred upon it by the most admirable pack of hounds 

 that can be conceived. 



It is supposed that the modern Foxhound derives its origin from the old English 

 hound, and its various points of perfection from judicious crosses with other breeds. 

 For example, in order to increase its speed, the greyhound is made to take part in its 

 pedigree, and the greyhound having already some admixture of the bull-dog blood there 

 is an infusion of stubbornness as well as of mere speed. 



FOXHOUND. -Can/s famillarls. 



There are various breeds of Dogs which are remarkable for the very great development 

 of some peculiar faculty, such as speed in the greyhound, courage in the bull-dog, delicacy 

 of scent in the bloodhound, sagacity in the poodle, and so on. So that, when a breed 

 of Dogs begins to fail in any of these characteristics, the fault is amended by the intro- 

 duction of a Dog belonging to the breed which exhibits the needful quality in great per- 

 fection. It is remarkable that the mental character is transmitted through a longer 

 series of descendants than the outward form. Even in the case of such widely differ- 

 ent Dogs as the bull-dog and the greyhound, all vestige of the bull-dog form is lost in 

 the fourth cross, while the determinate courage of the animal is persistent, and serves 

 to invigorate the character of unnumbered successive progeny. 



By using these means with the greatest care and judgment, the modern sportsmen 

 have succeeded in obtaining an animal which is so accurate of scent, that it might 

 almost challenge the bloodhound himself in its power of discovering it, and of adhering 



