It is stated that these dogs when properly trained will not kill or harm the pursued unless they are resisted. " On reaching a fugitive they bark at him till he stops, and then couch near him, terrifying him with a ferocious growling if lie stirs. They then bark at intervals to give notice to the chasseurs, till they come up and secure their prisoner." Dallas however, who bad his information from the commissioner himself, William Dawes Qunrrell, to whom his work is dedicated, gives a description and representation of one of these Spanish chasseurs with his dogs ; and he relates the following instances of the strength and determined ferocity of the latter : " The party had scarcely erected their huts when the barking of a dog was heard near them. They got immediately under arms, and proceeding in the direction of the sound discovered a negro endeavour ing to make his escape. One of the Spanish doge was sent after him. On coming up the negro cut him twice with his muschet,* on which the dog seized him by the nape of the neck and secured him. lie proved to be n ninaway—mid that he and two other negrocs had deserted the Maroons a few days before, and that the putty was at a great distance from the town, hut that he would conduct them to it by noon next day." In the next anecdote recorded by Dallas the attack was fatal both • A long straight mullet, or mutest!, longer than a dragoon's Award, and twice as thick, something like a flat iron bar sharpened at the lower end, of which about eighteen inches are as sharp as a razor. The point is not unlike the old Roman sword. Such la Dallas's description of the ehasseur's musehet.
to the unhappy object of it and to the dog :—" One of the dogs that had been unmuzzled to drink when there was not the least apprehen sion of any mischief, went up to an old woman who was sitting attending to a pot in which she was preparing a mess. The dog smelled at it and was troublesome ; this provoked her ; she took up a stick and country in pursuit of murderers and other felons, and an extraordinary proof of their activity is recorded by Dallas, who states that the event occurred about a month before the arrival of the commissioner at the Havanna. A fleet from Jamaica, under convoy to Great Britain, passing through the Gulf of Mexico, beat up on the north aide of Cuba. One of the ships, manned with foreigners, chiefly renegado Spaniards, being a dull sailer, and consequently lagging cistern, standing in with the land at night, was run on shore, the captain, officers, and the few British hands on board murdered, and the vessel plundered by the Spanish renegadoes. The part of the coast on which the ship was stranded being wild and unfrequented, the assassins retired with their booty to the mountains, intending to penetrate through the woods to some remote settlements on the south side, where they hoped to secure themselves and elude all pursuit. Early intelligence of the crime
however had been conveyed to the Havanna, and the assassins were pursued by a detachment of twelve of the Chasseurs del Rey with their dogs. In a few days the criminals were all brought in and executed, not one of them being in the least hurt by the dogs when captured.
African Blood-Hound.—On his return from Africa the late Colonel Denham, then major, presented two dogs and a bitch of this variety to the royal menagerie in the Tower, which, under the care of the keeper, Mr. Cops, then contained a very choice collection of animals, began to beat him, on which he seized on her throat, which he would not let go till his head was severed from his body by his master. The windpipe of the woman being much torn, she could not be saved." A dog and a bitch, said to be of the true Cuban Blood-Hound breed, were some years ago brought to this country, where soon after their arrival the bitch littered ten pupa, one of them deformed. Tho figure lucre given is from one of these pups, which had not attained its full growth. They are shorter on their legs than the English variety ; the_ muzzle is shorter, and the animal is altogether smaller, with less of the hound about it than the English Blood-Hound bas; the height is about two feet ; the colour generally tawny, with black about tbe muzzle, or brindled like some of the Ban-Dogs. They show great attachment, and are very gentle till seriously provoked, and then their ferocity is alarming.
In Cuba the common employment of these clogs was to traverse the recorded in that interesting publication The Tower Menagerie, London, 8vo, 1829. The Major informed Mr. Cops that with them he hunted the gazelle, and that they displayed great cunning, fre quently quitting the circuitous line of scent purpose of cutting off a double, and recovering the scent again with ease. They would hit off and follow a scent after a lapse of two hours from the time when the animal had been on the spot, and this delicacy of nose had not escaped observation, for they were applied to nearly the same purposes as the other varieties here mentioned, and were commonly employed in Africa to trace a flying enemy to his retreat. It is well remarked in the work last above mentioned that for symmetry and action they were perfect models, and a regret is expressed that in consequence of their not having shown any disposition to perpetuate their race, though they had at the time of making the observation been three years in England, there appeared to be no chance of crossing our pointers with this breed. We agree with the writer in thinking that this blood so introduced would be a very valuable acquisition. It was remarked that of the three in the Tower the males were very mild, but the female was of a very savage disposition.