Dogs and All about Them by Robert Leighton
page 109 of 429 (25%)
page 109 of 429 (25%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
others, and that the puppies are difficult to rear. There are,
however, many advantages in having a pure breed, and there is much to say for the perfect work of the Otterhound. The scent of the otter is possibly the sweetest of all trails left by animals. One cannot understand how it is that an animal swimming two or three feet from the bottom of a river-bed and the same from the surface should leave a clean line of burning scent that may remain for twelve or eighteen hours. The supposition must be that the scent from the animal at first descends and is then always rising. At any rate, the oldest Foxhound or Harrier that has never touched otter is at once in ravishing excitement on it, and all dogs will hunt it. The terrier is never keener than when he hits on such a line. The Foxhound, so wonderful in his forward dash, may have too much of it for otter hunting. The otter is so wary. His holt can very well be passed, his delicious scent may be overrun; but the pure-bred Otterhound is equal to all occasions. He is terribly certain on the trail when he finds it. Nothing can throw him off it, and when his deep note swells into a sort of savage howl, as he lifts his head towards the roots of some old pollard, there is a meaning in it--no mistake has been made. In every part of a run it is the same; the otter dodges up stream and down, lands for a moment, returns to his holt; but his adversaries are always with him, and as one sees their steady work the impression becomes stronger and stronger that for the real sport of otter-hunting there is nothing as good as the pure-bred Otterhound. There is something so dignified and noble about the hound of unsullied strain that if you once see a good one you will not soon forget him. He is a large hound, as he well needs to be, for the "varmint" who is his customary quarry is the wildest, most vicious, and, for its size, the most powerful of all British |
|