PLAN FOR ERECTING A KENNEL. 39 



SO large a body of animals as a pack of hounds. Mr. 

 White in his " Natural History of Selbourne," in 

 speaking of the effect that trees have near any place, 

 says: "that they are great promoters of damp, 

 and that they perspire profusely, condense largely, 

 and check evaporation so much, that woods are 

 always moist ; no wonder therefore that they contri- 

 bute much to pools and streams." The lodging-rooms 

 of a kennel if built in a proper manner should always 

 have other rooms over them, as they will then be 

 much warmer in winter, and may be kept much cooler 

 in summer ;*' if the kennels are only a building with- 

 out rooms or lofts over them, they should be carried 

 up as high as they conveniently can and not slated 

 nor tiled but thatched neatly; this plan has been 

 found fault with as harbouring vermin, but if the roof 

 is properly plastered in the inside, f there will be no 

 fleas nor ticks, and if built a reasonable height from 

 the ground and defended by pieces of sheet-iron at 

 the corners, rats and mice will not be able to climb 

 up. If the lodging-rooms are lofty (about the height 

 of eleven feet) and well ventilated, providing they 

 have rooms over them, they will be sufficiently cool 



* One of the rooms should be occupied by the boiler or feeder :is Lis sleepino- 

 apartment, as hounds ought never to be left entirely alone, witliout some one close 

 at hand, and within hearing for one single moment, or they may quarrel and 

 worry each other. JMany instances might be recorded of hounds being worried 

 in the kennel ; Colonel Cook mentions the fact of three being thus destroyed in the 

 short space often minutes, and the author had the same number killed in one of 

 his kennels, where no one slept near at hand, during one week m the summer of 

 1834; what made it more extraordinary was, that they were all of one family, 

 namely two brothers, and a young hound, got by one of them ; they were all 

 remarkably ill-tempered, which is a convincing proof that the victim in such 

 unfortunate cases is generally the aggressor. 



t The plaster should be put only on the roof, as walls plastered are very apt, 

 when broken, to harbour ticks; the bricks should be all carefully struck, as the 

 mason's term it, and well pointed inside. 



