DEER HUNTING. 
251 
One of them, single-handed, will pull down a Red Stag of 
the first head, or throttle a Wolf; and I would back a brace to 
bring to bay any Elk that ever ranged westward of the Cross¬ 
timbers, in a mile’s course. 
They are intelligent, handsome, hardy dogs, and will be found 
vastly useful. The Newfoundland, or Sheep-dog cross, may be 
dispensed with; but it renders them handsomer, hardier, and 
more intelligent than the mere double cross of Greyhound upon 
Foxhound,—it also gives them some of the powers of the water- 
dog, and adds to their courage. A dog so bred, it will be re¬ 
membered, combines, in some degree, the qualities of each of 
the three great natural divisions into which zoologists have dis¬ 
tinguished the order dog, canis, —viz., veloces , the swift runners, 
entirely or nearly devoid of scent; jpugnaces , or fighters; and 
sagaces , or intelligent,—having, in their composition of four 
crosses, two of speed, one and a-half of intelligence, and one- 
half of pugnacity, from the Foxhound. 
I should earnestly recommend my friends and readers of the 
Western Prairie States and Territories, to try this combination 
—I could almost vouch for their compensating the trouble, by 
the sport they would shew ; but, apart from these, I should urge 
the gentry of St. Louis, and places similarly situate, to try a 
kennel or two of Greyhounds. I can discover no reason why, 
among a population so spirited and so fond of field sports as the 
Western men, Greyhound coursing of Deer, with all its excite¬ 
ment of plates, cups, matches, and handicaps, should not be got 
up in as fine style as at Swaffham, Malton, or Newmarket, and 
in so much finer, as the Hart is a nobler animal than the Hare, 
and the illimitable prairies of the West a wider field for sports¬ 
manship than the Yorkshire Wolds, or the Chalky Heaths of 
Suffolk. 
Before closing this branch of my subject, it will be naturally 
expected that I should say something concerning the habits and 
the mode of pursuing the Black-tailed Deer. In truth, how¬ 
ever, so little is known, comparatively speaking, of this fine 
Deer, that I cannot enlarge upon the topic. It is found only 
