326 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



voice like an old Southern hound himself ; his coat is rough — 

 nay, it may almost be described as shaggy ; and he is found 

 of most of the regular hound colours — black and tan, black, tan 

 and white, hare tan, &c. ; though, of course, the tints do not 

 show up so brilliantly as on the smooth-coated varieties. His 

 nose is exceedingly good, as it has need to be, when he is ex- 

 pected to drag up to the hover of his game, perhaps some 

 hours after the otter himself has passed over the ground, l^o 

 dog living shows greater courage, not even the bull-dog; in- 

 deed, without this he would be of no use to grapple with his 

 deadly foe in his own element ; and so desperate is the struggle, 

 that he has been known to be carried to the bottom and literally 

 di'owned. 



Many people have used fox-hounds in the chase of the 

 otter, and, when well entered, no doubt they are very efficient, 

 as they are in hunting anything ; but I cannot help thinking, 

 from the nature of their coats, that the time S2:>ent in the water 

 must be very injurious to them ; neither do I think that that 

 style of hunting is calculated to bring out all the beauties of 

 this chase. Others use all kinds of mongrels and nondescripts — 

 in fact, pretty much what they can catch. There are, however, 

 a few packs in England that have been kept perfectly pure, 

 and of these the best known are the Carlisle otter-hounds ; 

 Lord Hill has, or had a year or two ago, a very beautiful 

 pack. I saw but very little of them, but from that little I came 

 to the conclusion that they were more like the wire-haired har- 

 rier, in character and colour and appearance, than any of those 

 I had seen fi-om the north of England. They were not so dark 

 in colour, and shorter in their coats ; indeed, more broken than 

 long haired. I was very unfortunate in never having seen 

 this pack at work, as on two different occasions I chanced to 

 arrive in their vicinity just as they had finished hunting the 

 district — a great disappointment to me, as I should much have 

 liked a day with them. 



The otter-hound should have one characteristic in common 



