BLOODHOUND, a variety of bound (q.v.) remarkable for its exquisite scent and fox its great sagacity and perseverance in tracking any object to the pursuit of which it has been trained. It derives its name from its original common employment in the chase, either to track a wounded animal or to discover the lair of a beast of prey. It was also formerly called, both in England and Scotland, sleet-hound or sleuth-hound, from the Saxon sleut, the track of a deer. The B. was formerly common and much iu use in Britain, as well as on the continent of Europe, but is now rare. The poetical histories of Bruce and Wallace describe these heroes as occasionally tracked by blood-hounds, when they were skulking from their enemies. The B. was at a later period much used to guide in the pursuit of cattle carried off in border raids; it has been frequently used for the pursuit of felons and of deer-stealers; and latterly, in America, for the capture of fugitive slaves, an employment of its powers which has contributed not a little to render its name odious to many philanthropists. Terrible ideas are also, probably, sug gested by the name itself, although the B. is by no means a particularly ferocious kind of dog, and when employed in the pursuit of human beings, can be trained to detain them as prisoners without offering to injure them. The true B. is taller and also stronger in proportion and of more compact figure than a fox-hound, muscular and broad chested, with large pendulous ears, large pendulous upper lips, and an expression of face which is variously described as "thoughtful," "noble," and "stern." The original
color is said to have been a deep tan, clouded with black. The color appears to have been one of the chief distinctions between the B. and the talbot (q.v.), but it is not improbable that this name was originally common to all bloodhounds. Many interest iug anecdotes are recorded of the perseverance and success of bloodhounds in following a track upon which they have been set, even when it has led them through much fre quented roads.—The CUBAN B., which is much employed in the pursuit of felons and of fugitive slaves in Cuba, differs considerably from the true B. of Britain and of the continent of Europe, being more fierce and having more resemblance to the bull-dog, and probably a connection with that or some similar race. Many of these dogs were imported into Jamaica in 1796, to be employed in suppressing the maroon (q.v.) insur rection, but the terror occasioned by their arrival produced this effect without their actual employment. It was this kind of B. which was chiefly introduced into the for mer slave-states of North America.