I am convinced that he knew the date of a track
from its appearance, as I have constantly seen him strove his
nose into the deep impression, to try for a scent when the track
was some eight or ten hours old.
It was a curious thing to watch his cleverness at finding on a
patina. In most of the plains in the neighborhood of Newera Ellia
a small stream flows through the centre. To this the elk, who
are out feeding in the night, are sure to repair at about four in
the morning for their last drink, and I usually try along the
banks a little after daylight for a find, where the scent is
fresh and the tracks are distinctly visible.
While every hound has been eagerly winding the scent upon the
circuitous route which the elk has made in grazing, Bluebeard
would never waste his time in attempting to follow the
innumerable windings, but, taking a fresh cast, he would
invariably strike off to the jungle and try along the edge, until
he reached the spot at which the elk had entered. At these times
he committed the only fault which he possessed (for an
elk-hound); he would immediately open upon the scent, and, by
alarming the elk at too great a distance, would give him too long
a start. Nevertheless, he made up for this by his wonderful
correctness and knowledge of his game, and if the run was
increased in length by his early note, we nevertheless ran into
our game at last.
Some years ago he met with an accident which partly deprived him
of the use of one of his 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. At length we separated, and took up our
stations upon different knolls to watch the patina and to listen.
The hill upon which I stood commanded an extensive view of the
patina, while the broad river flowed at the base, after its exit
from the jungle. I had been only a few minutes at my post when I
observed, at about six hundred yards distant, a strong ripple in
the river like the letter V, and it immediately struck me that an
elk had come down the river from the jungle and was swimming down
the stream. This was soon proved to be the case, as I saw the
head of a doe elk in the acute angle of the ripple.
I had the greyhounds with me, "Lucifer," "Lena," "Hecate" and
"Bran," and I ran down the hill with these dogs, hoping to get
them a view of her as she landed on the patina. I had several
bogs and hollows to cross, and I accordingly lost sight of the
elk; but upon arriving at the spot where I imagined the elk would
land, I saw her going off across the patina, a quarter of a mile
away. The greyhounds saw her, and away they flew over the short
grass, while the pack began to appear from the jungle, having
come down to the halloo that I had given on first seeing the elk
swimming down the river.
The elk seemed determined to give a beautiful course for, instead
of pushing straight for the jungle, she made a great circuit on
the patina, as though in the endeavor to make once more for the
river. The long-legged ones were going at a tremendous pace,
and, being fresh, they rapidly overhauled her; gradually the
distance between them diminished, and at length they had a fair
course down a gentle inclination which led toward the river. Here
the greyhounds soon made an end of the hunt; their game was
within a hundred yards, going at top speed: but it was all up
with the elk; the pace was too good, and they ran into her and
pulled her down just as the other hounds had come down upon my
scent.
We were cutting up the elk, when we presently heard old
Bluebeard's voice far away in the jungle, and, thinking that he
might perhaps be running another elk, we ran to a hill which
overlooked the river and kept a bright look-out. We soon
discovered that he was true upon the same game, and we watched
his plan of hunting, being anxious to see whether he could hunt
up an elk that had kept to water for so long a time.
On his entrance to the patina by the river's bank he immediately
took to water and swam across the stream; here be carefully
hunted the edge for several hundred yards down the river, but,
finding nothing, he returned to the jungle at the point from
which the river flowed.
