Bind legs; this made the poor old fellow
very slow, but it did not interfere with his finding and hunting,
although the rest of the pack would shoot ahead, and the elk was
frequently brought to bay and killed before old Bluebeard had
finished his hunt; but he was never thrown out, and was sure to
come up at last; and if the pack were at fault during the run, he
was the hound to show them the right road on his arrival.
I once saw an interesting proof of his reasoning powers during a
long and difficult hunt.
I was hunting for a few days at the Augora patinas, accompanied
by Palliser. These are about five hundred feet lower than Newera
Ellia, and are situated in the district of Dimboola. They are
composed of undulating knolls of fine grass, with a large and
deep river flowing through the centre. These patinas are
surrounded by wooded hills of good open jungle.
We had found upon the patina at break of day, and the whole pack
had gone off in full cry; but the whereabout was very uncertain,
and having long lost all sound of the hounds we wandered here and
there to no purpose.
