are strong, the latter deep and slightly arched. STERN--The stern
is long and tapering and set on rather high, with a moderate amount
of hair underneath. GAIT--The gait is elastic, swinging, and free--the
stern being carried high, but not too much curled over the back.
COLOUR--The colours are black-and-tan, red-and-tan, and tawny--the
darker colours being sometimes interspersed with lighter or
badger-coloured hair and sometimes flecked with white. A small amount
of white is permissible on chest, feet, and tip of stern.




CHAPTER XIV

THE OTTERHOUND


The Otterhound is a descendant of the old Southern Hound, and there
is reason to believe that all hounds hunting their quarry by nose
had a similar source. Why the breed was first called the Southern
Hound, or when his use became practical in Great Britain, must be
subjects of conjecture; but that there was a hound good enough to
hold a line for many hours is accredited in history that goes very
far back into past centuries. The hound required three centuries ago
even was all the better esteemed for being slow and unswerving on
a line of scent, and in many parts of the Kingdom, up to within half
that period, the so-called Southern Hound had been especially
employed. In Devonshire and Wales the last sign of him in his purity
was perhaps when Captain Hopwood hunted a small pack of hounds very
similar in character on the fitch or pole-cat; the _modus operandi_