THE FOX-TERRIER. 9 i 



Carlisle Otter-hounds, purchased Mr. Sanderson's "Venture" from 

 Mr. Wootton, who had bought the whole team in 1873, and has 

 used him since that time with his hounds, and also as a stud- 

 dog for improving his old breed of terriers, in which capacity he 

 has been most useful. In the water his coat is said to stand ex- 

 posure quite as well as the otteT-hound's ; and for those who want 

 remarkably hardy dogs, without doubt the rough fox-terrier is 

 better adapted than the smooth, who is often furnished with a 

 soft silky coat which admits the rain to the skin almost in a 

 worse manner than if it was bare. On the jaws a slight beard 

 only is considered to be the correct thing, and in this point 

 perhaps the modern dog is not exactly like the old-fashioned one, 

 who had certainly a stronger and somewhat longer beard in most 

 cases, but this difference is not enough to constitute a new and 

 distinct breed. As far as my knowledge goes (and I have seen all 

 the first-prize takers hitherto exhibited), the rough fox-terrier of 

 the present day does not show quite so thick and " cobby " a body 

 as the smooth, but his ear has the same size and shape, so that 

 however this point has been obtained by the one, the same pro- 

 cess must most probably have been adopted by the breeders of 

 the other. The diminution of beard would lead to the supposition 

 that Mr. Sanderson's dogs are a cross between the smooth fox- 

 terrier (possibly already modified by the beagle cross) and the 

 old-fashioned rough dog ; and their possession of the under-pile in 

 their coats, which I do not recollect to have existed in the latter, 

 would lead me to believe that the Bedlington has been resorted 

 to ; but the body coat is too hard and wiry to induce the belief 

 that this dog and the smooth fox-terrier are alone responsible for 

 " Venture," " Turpin," and Oo. The dog attains maturity so soon 

 that several crosses may be carried out in a very few years, and 

 a new breed can thus be manufactured to order by any single 



