MAN-HUNTING.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3148, 18 December 1922, Page 2

MAN-HUNTING.

(By A. Croxton Smith.) Next month the Association of Bloodhound Breeders is holding some manhunting trials on the Marquis: of Ail'esbury's estates in Wiltshire, these beting the latest of a long scries fur which: the association has been responsible since its foundation some five-and-twenty yearn ago. A few enthusiasts, determined 1 that the wonderful scenting power*; of bloodhounds should, not be allowed to decay from want of use, had been in the habit of training hounds, but the practice was not general. The effect of the various trials has been excellent, and' I think the fact that certain Chief Constables noAv employ bloodhounds may be attributed to their influence.

Considerations of time prevent the tests being as exacting as couild be wished. On September 26 there will bo two stakes, in one of which the runner will be started two hours "before the hound is lyiid on, and the interval in the other will be only half that time. The severer of the! two is nothing out of the way, because, if a hound is really to be of value to the police, he must be capable of hunting a line 12 hours cold. To reach that degree of perfection it is necessary for him to have much natural aptitude, and to be subjected to a steady schooling for about a year.

Trials; are important for the encouragement they give owners to enter their hounds to work. They help to supply the raw material which may be turned into the completed l article. There is something very fascinating in watching a clever hound on the trail. If the runner were to tract" a line indicating his exact route, the inexperienced would be astonished, in some atmospheric conditions, to see the hound running parallel to the line a short distance away, showing that the body l scent of the man had been, carried down wind and deposited on the earth. What is still more striking is that each individual has a distinct scent of his own. which the hound is able to classify and dissociate from that of others. What is termed freedom from change is a characteristic of the bloodhound. He will stick to the original line, although it may have been crossed inseveral places, and on finishing he "ill identify his man among a dozen. Being; one of nature's gentlemen, amiable and kindly, the bloodhound merely makes a friendly demonstration when he catches his quarry. Can hounds be of use to the police? The aiiswer is emphatically in the affirmative, always, with flic reservation that they must have been properly trained.

A chief constable, who had tried them on my advice, once wrote to me that 1 had: been the means of depriving many of his people of (heir Christmas dinners. His hounds had been so successful in clearing up henroost robberies that, the outbreak, customary at that cheerful season, had not occurred. The moral effect' was the wholesome.