HUNTING DIRECTORY. 51 



Breediii" in and in. 



in opposition to such an authority, you had better try 

 it." Such a system I cannot recommend for the following 

 reasons : 



In the first place, I would wish it to be fully impressed 

 upon the mind of the sportsman, that, whenever, by 

 judicious crosses or otherwise, he has obtained hounds 

 of first-rate excellence, he must, nevertheless, in order 

 to preserve such excellence, call in the assistance of 

 other breeds of repute ; smce, if he confine the propa- 

 gation to the same family, the strain will degenerate, 

 and m the thu'd or fourth generation will become literally 

 good for nothing. — Relationship should be as much as 

 possible avoided in breeding, nor can any better plan be 

 adopted than procuring either the dog or bitch from a 

 distant part of the country. 



The ill consequences of breeding in and in, to use a 

 sportsman's phrase, are now tolerably well known, and 

 the remark is not confined to hounds only, but would seem 

 to apply equally perhaps to the whole circle of nature. 

 The judicious farmer, aware of the evil, spares neither 

 expense nor pains in crossing his horses, cows, and sheep ; 

 his pigs and poultry. Even the human species, by the 

 intermarriages of famihes, strikingly exemplifies these 

 observations — degeneracy of mind as of body is thus 

 produced ; scrofulous diseases are the certain result ; 

 and hence scrofula is less frequent in large towns ; but is 

 uniformly found to prevail in all secluded villages, where 

 the continued intercourse of thesame families has existed 

 for a few generations. 



If, therefore, the object of the sportsman be to pro- 

 cure and maintain a good breed of hounds, let him have 



