their sight as quickly as possible and run in a straight line, say two hundred yards up wind on grass-land, and then hide himself. The man who hunts the pups should know the exact line taken, and take the pups over it, trying to encourage them to hunt until they get to their man, who should reward them with a bit of meat. This may have to be repeated several times before they really get their heads down; but when they have once begun to hunt they improve rapidly and take great delight in the quest. Everything should be made as easy as possible at first and the difficulties increased TAMOOREAU very gradually. This may be done by having the line crossed by others, by increasing the time before the pups are laid on, or by crossing roads, etc. When the pups get old enough they should be taught to jump boldly and to swim brooks where necessary. When young hounds have begun to run fairly well it will be found very useful to let the runner carry a bundle of sticks two feet or two feet six inches long, pointed at one end and with a piece of white paper in a cleft at the other end. When he makes a turn or crosses a fence he should put one of these sticks down and incline it in the direction he is going to take next. This will give the person hunting the hounds some idea of the correctness of their work, though the best hounds do not always run the nearest to the line. On a good scenting day I have seen hounds running hard fifty yards or more to leeward of the line taken. These sticks should be taken up when done with, or they may be found misleading on some other occasion. The hounds will soon learn to cast themselves or try back if they overrun the line, and should never receive any assistance so long as they continue working on their own account. It is most important that they should become selfreliant. The line should be varied as much as possible. It is not well to run hounds over when hunting any wild animal, but many hounds run perfectly mute when hunting man. This is, however, very much a matter of breeding. Some strains run man without giving tongue at all; others are very musical. If any reader is fond of seeing hounds work and has only a limited amount of country to hunt over, he will find much pleasure in hunting man with one or two couples of bloodhounds. In such circumstances it is a great convenience to be able to select the course, which cannot be done if hunting some wild animal, and a great variety of different runs can be made over limited ground. Bloodhounds can be easily entered to hunt a horse; and, if this is preferred, a man may be sent across country exactly the same course they have been hunted on some previous occasion. If some hounds are much slower than the rest it is best to hunt them by themselves, or they may get to "score to cry," as the old writers say, instead of patiently working out the line for themselves. It is a great advantage to get hounds accustomed to strange sights and noises. If a hound is intended to be brought to a pitch of excellence that shall enable him to be used in thoroughfares, he should be brought up in a town and see as much bustle as possible. If he is only intended to be used in open country, with occasional bits of road work, this is not necessary. Bloodhounds give tongue freely on horseback and the hounds laid on when it is thought that he has had sufficient start. I know nothing more delightful than to see bloodhounds working out a scent carefully under varying circumstances, and to hear their sonorous, deep, bell-like note. To my ear there is more melody in a chorus such as this than was ever put into song or ballad. To become, however, a complete fanatic in the breed, one well-bred bloodhound should be kept as a constant companion and inseparable friend. Under these circumstances the hound's individuality is developed, and his capacity as a good comrade will be chiefly determined by the intelligence and fraternity of his human associate. He is essentially and preeminently a gentlemanly dog, and when you have once won his esteem he may be depended upon as your stanch, trusty, and lifelong friend. He has a solemn, stately bearing, and a thoughtful, ingenuous expression, which is quite in keeping with his princely birth. Landseer painted some very good portraits of the bloodhounds of his day. He was associated with Mr. Jacob Bell in the breeding of bloodhounds, and it is related that on one occasion Mr. Bell drove into his stable-yard when an old favorite named Countess was lying asleep in a hayloft. She half woke up at the familiar sound made by her master's wheels, be kept clear of this contagion or infection, they are as hardy as other breeds of dogs. Breeders in France and Germany have been more successful, probably owing to their hounds having been bred and reared in a different climate and under different conditions. The last time I had distemper in my kennels I lost only one out of eight pups attacked, and I attribute this good fortune to the use of quinine in large doses. I gave from three to four grains twice daily, and this is the only drug I have tried that has had any effect in reducing the fever. The most important matters are great clean came to the door, and falling down into the yard was killed instantly. If the death of Countess was sudden her immortality was immediate, for Mr. Bell put her into his dogcart and drove at once to Sir Edwin Landseer, who posed the hound and painted the picture known as "The Sleeping Bloodhound," which is now in the National Gallery. Grafton, the model for "Dignity and Impudence," was considered a very fine specimen at that time, but we have now many hounds which are very much better in every particular, so far as it is possible to form an opinion from the picture. When bloodhounds contract distemper they generally have the disease in a very severe form, owing to their close in-breeding; but if they can liness and unsparing use of disinfectants, absolute quiet, a room of even temperature, admitting plenty of fresh air without draught, and a variety of the most nourishing liquid food possible, given very frequently in small quantities. The puppy should not have any exercise until he has completely recovered and the temperature has for some days been quite natural, as a relapse is generally fatal. The bloodhound may be described as follows: The head is the chief characteristic of the breed and should be estimated very highly; the skull is very long (good dogs generally exceed eleven inches in length), narrow, and very much peaked; muzzle deep and square; ears very thin, long, and pendulous, set on very low, hanging close to the face and curled upon themselves; eyes hazel colored, deep set, with triangular shaped lids showing the haw. Flews long, thin, and pendulous, the upper lip overhanging the lower one. Neck long, with great quantity of loose skin or dewlap. The skin of the face should be very loose and wrinkled, and when the nose is depressed a roll of loose skin should be seen on the forehead. The coat should be close, but rather silky in texture, and the skin thin. Height, dogs from twenty-five to twenty-seven inches at shoulder, bitches rather less. Shoulders deep and sloping, brisket particularly well let down, forming a sort of keel between the forelegs; loins broad and muscular; powerful, muscular thighs and second thighs; good legs and round feet, hocks well bent; tapering, lashing stern. The color most generally admired now is WYNDYATE, NEAR SCARBOROUGH, ENGLAND. black and tan, the legs, feet, and all or part of the face being a tan color, and the back and sides and the upper part of neck and stern black. There is generally a white star on the chest, and a little white on the feet is admissible. Some fifteen years since it was not at all uncommon to see white flecks on the backmaking the hound look as if he had been out in a snow-storm-and a white tip to stern. The former peculiarity seems unfortunately to be quite lost, but the white tip to stern is still sometimes met with. A deep red with tan markings is common; but to my mind the most beautiful color of all is a tawny, more or less mixed with black on the back. It is, however, very rare, and I only know one or two hounds of this color. The bitch is somewhat smaller than the dog, and in her the head properties are not so fully developed. Edwin Brough. EARLY HEROES OF IRELAND. NE who turns over the leaves of a Japanese book of hermits is apt to exclaim: "How like these old men are to hard-featured Scotchmen, or to Irish peasants from Ulster or Connaught!" It is only on studying the past of Ireland and Britain that one sees resemblances much more impressive than such coincidences-perceives they are more than coincidences, and rather in the nature of a radical correspondence between the race mixtures at the two points about the round of the earth east and west between which lies the greatest stretch of land. As a stone dropped in a quiet pool sends waves equally in every direction, so for purposes of illustration the wealth of materials now at hand. Of the many glories of little Ireland this is one, to have retained in her mythology and legends much that illustrates the history of humanity before what is strictly called history found its way into books. The narrative ballads of Oisîn, whose name is explained by the Gaels of Ireland as "little fawn," in connection with an enchantment of his mother into the form of a doe previous to his birth, contain the longing and resentment of pagans under the yoke of Christianity. He is a revenant from the Land of Youth who finds St. Patrick in virtual control of Ireland. Gone are all the delights intellectual, all the pleasures carnal, of the Fenian days, when the summers were passed by that national militia in picnics among the abundant forests, hunting wild oxen, boars, deer, and wolf, harassing the foes of the arch-king who refused tribute of cattle, sleeping in the open, keeping pirates out of the rivers and estuaries; whose winters were passed in warm quarters at the homesteads of farmers, who did not dare refuse them anything their insolence asked. Oisîn finds asceticism the ideal of the day. The monkish rule forbids bloodshed, sensuality, and carousal, limits polygamy, and in a thousand ways enforces uncomfortable Christian precepts founded on a general doctrine of self-denial. LARGE AND SMALL HORNS OF BRONZE FOR CHASE AND WAR, we can imagine that from some central point of We may well ask how it comes that such defiant utterances as are given below were able to survive centuries of Christian rule during which the professed teachers of that faith were very often the keepers of tradition. To explain it we must not forget that the people had reason to resent the endowment of village bishopric, village cure, monastery, and clerical establishment. The largess of chief and provincial king to clerics was at the expense of the peasants; always it was the latter who had to pay, and their consent was no more asked than it was under paganism when the Fenians rode over them roughshod. Listen to the dialogue between St. Patrick and Oisin, |