A QUESTION ASKED IN PARIS. 249 



" What could be the great difference in the condition 

 of hounds, in their being fed with barley-bread or 

 oatmeal ? " This is precisely tho sort of question I 

 expected. Frenchmen know nothing whatever of 

 the nature of the hound^ nor what tends to keep him 

 in that healthful condition, without which he cannot 

 be triumphant in speed and endurance over the wolf 

 and boar. For some reason ordained by nature, 

 barley-meal is heating and injurious to the stomach 

 and constitution of the hound. The fact is so, and 

 man cannot controvert it. On the other hand, oat- 

 meal — old, and well boiled — is precisely adapted to 

 keep him in vigour and condition ; and its mild, yet 

 nourishing and glutinous nature, while it sustains 

 him, occasions no feverish heat whatever. Barley- 

 bread may appear at first outlay to be the cheapest, 

 but in the end it is not so, and for the two following 

 reasons. If the hound is fed on barley-bread, his 

 huntsman does not get from him his most effective 

 services, nor the worth of the animal he uses ; and in 

 the second place, when subsisting on barley -bread, 

 to keep the skin of the hound free from cutaneous 

 eruption and mange, and render him decent to look 

 at, a huntsman has to spend a comparative little 

 fortune in train-oil, brimstone, turpentine, mercurial 

 soap, and other remedies. 



