ROUNDING HOUNDS EARS. 149 



men never to round the ears of their hounds, and 

 never did I see a country in which the rounding 

 iron would have been of greater service. From 

 the intense thickness and brambly nature of these 

 enormous woodlands, every art which could protect 

 the hound from punishment and render his passage 

 more easy through cover should be resorted to. 

 Hounds' ears are rounded to protect them from thorns. 

 Having accounted for and assisted in regrets at the 

 sadly necessitated absence of my kind friends, I beheld 

 similar casualties occur among the coupled hounds, 

 and similar severities indulged in by their attendants, 

 as at the former meet, when this same litter of wolves 

 was said to be harboured. A consultation between 

 the three respective masters of hounds then ensued, 

 and M. Rambour, who w^as mounted on a very cleA^er 

 animal, ordered his huntsman with three supposed-to- 

 be-steady hounds to " attack the wolves." 



There is a great deal of character in these hounds 

 from La Vendee, and in their eyes and countenance a 

 vast deal of intelligence. They are large, powerful, but 

 heavy, with the usual fault in the generality of French 

 hounds, the largest and worst feet I ever saw. Those 

 that came under my observation could not help being 

 slow ; but, from the contour of their fine hound-like 

 heads, and their large, or what is commonly called 



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