Speed Versus Nose 99 



space in a controversy with the beagle men, but in 

 an issue of your paper of December 15th, in a com- 

 munication of Mr. Buckstaff' s in 'Shall it be Speed 

 or Nose?' he struck me in a tender spot when he 

 says according to all reports, his Royal Rover beat 

 my Nell R., and did it easily. Now, I wish to say 

 to Mr. Buckstaff, that the reports say no such thing, 

 and further that Royal Rover can not beat Nell R. 

 for speed, nose or any other hunting quality, for 

 fun or for money. 'Bradley,' in his report to 

 Forest and Stream, says : 'Rover fairly outworked 

 Nell, as she acted as though she was tired.' This 

 I admit in part. They ran the day before over two 

 hours together. No part of the heat was satis- 

 factorily seen by the judges and the dogs were 

 ordered up. The next morning they were put 

 down again and a few minutes afterwards IVIr. 

 Chapman kicked out a rabbit. Rover was put on 

 the trail immediately, and the rabbit at once left 

 the brush and went into a mowed field and took 

 nearly a straight line for a garden. Nell at the time 

 the rabbit was started was a number of rods away 

 from Rover and did not know that he had a rabbit 

 running, until I called her out of the brush. She 

 then had to make up some twenty rods before she 

 could get in with Rover and, I think, did not get 

 ahead of him. The rabbit was soon lost in the 



