THE BASSET-HOUND. 157 



coverts, or to serve as house pets and for show purposes, as an object of fashion or 

 fancy. Both employments will inevitably alter the type and disposition of the dog 

 as soon as his qualification for underground work is regarded to be only secondary. 

 But I believe there are also many sportsmen and fanciers of the dachshund in 

 England who would like to preserve these dogs as they are bred originally, and who 

 wish to know how we in Germany are going to fix the points of this breed as we 

 Germans are desirous of becoming acquainted with the English points of English 

 breeds of dogs. 



To describe the real old type of dachshund, and to prevent, if possible, the 

 creation of a new cross breed, was my intention in sending these notes. 



THE BASSET-HOUND. 



(By GEORGE E. KBEHL.) 



A few years ago both the name and appearance of this breed were strange 

 to the untravelled Englishman. One or two basset-hounds may have been 

 imported as curiosities by dog lovers who had come across them in their journeys 

 abroad, or on account of their sporting merits by followers of the chase, who 

 had seen them used by their continental friends. In either case, they did not 

 come to public notice by the medium of the show-bench. Mr. Everett Millais 

 was the first to exhibit a specimen of the breed, and its appearance caused no 

 little excitement and amusement in canine circles. Many pronounced it a 

 turnspit, others an abnormal dachshund, while a few " remembered to have seen 

 such dogs in old French hunting pictures." Basset-hounds are one of the 

 oldest and purest breeds in France. The earliest French authority, Du Fouilloux, 

 gives two illustrations of them in his " La Venerie." In regard to these 

 illustrations, I have noticed with some amusement that, although our ancient 

 author describes them as " bassets d'Artois," yet a dachshund fancier has claimed 

 them to be representatives of his hobby-breed, whereas I should imagine that 

 dachshunds (a later off- shoot of the Flemish basset-hound) entered as little 

 into the philosophy of Du Fouilloux as our own bull terrier. Du Fouilloux 

 explains the title " d'Artois " by telling us that the breed originally came from 

 that province and the near-lying Flanders. He divided them into two varieties : 

 The Artesian, " with full-crooked forelegs, smooth coats, brave, and having double 

 rows of teeth like wolves ;" the Flemish, " straight-legged, rough-coated, black, 

 and sterns curled like a horn." This division was confirmed by two later old 

 authors, Selincourt and Leverrier de la Conterie. The last-named expressed his 

 preference for the Flemish, as being " faster, but they gave tongue badly, and 

 were babblers ;" he found the Artesians " courageous in going to earth (as shown 

 in Du Fouilloux's engraving), long in the body, and with noble heads." The 

 descendants of the Flemish type still exist in the Foret Noire, in the Vosges, and, 

 I believe, in the German dachshund, which, according to my theory, is descended 

 from basset-hounds that found their way into South Germany (Wurtemberg, 



