THE CHASE OF THE STAG. its 



thoroughly exhausted, and meeting more of the strong 

 current than the others ; but still he kept his head 

 above water, and there seemed to be yet a chance of 

 saving him if the boat should arrive soon. But on 

 hearing the horn once or twice he seemed, poor 

 creature, anxious to obey the summons, and his last 

 effort apparently sealed his doom and deprived him of 

 the last remnant of that life which was till now hanging 

 by a thread — a few more vain struggles and ' Chanti- 

 cleer ' was no more ; nothing but a lifeless body floating 

 to westward with the ebbing tide." There were tears on 

 the beach that day over " Chanticleer," and who shall 

 say they were foolish tears ? It is true that once or 

 twice a man has swum out to a deer, but not a mile 

 from the shore on a November day ; only a gallant 

 hound would do this. 



And here it may not be out of place to say a few 

 w^ords about the hounds generally. Mr. Bisset early 

 made up his mind to have none but big hounds in the 

 pack ; hounds, that is to say, from twenty-five inches 

 upwards. In this decision he was probably influenced 

 by the tradition of the old pack, but not less by the 

 necessity of having hounds big enough to stride over 

 the high heather that covers so many parts of Exmoor. 

 The pack is kept up by drafts from all the kennels in 



