The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-02-13
WONDERFUL INSTINCT.
a Pack of Trained Hounds
Tracked a Georgia Convict.

II How a Pack of Trained Hound
Y Tracked a Georgia Convict.
At Oldtewn / saw a race between
49, eonvict and the hounds. 1t came abou
h this way: Mr.. Williams claimed
hat he was backed by Captain James
fhat any convict could be selected on
Il hundred and sent off to circl
through the woods, passing through
b ozen different squads of convicts; tina
ln hour later he could put his hound
&f pn that convict's track, and they would
kthread him through the squads Of con
kvicts, never be shaken from his indi
yidual track, and finally bring him up
~ ] remarked that could understand how
the hounds might carry the convict
track through acrowd of outsiders from
some peculiar scent Of the camp, but moi
S how they could separate IL convict
s# from another.
III "Therc, may be q hundred convicts,'
ID be said, "clothed precisely alike, and
a wearing precisely the same shoes. They
u may feed together on precisely the same
d food, and sleep in hunks that touch
each other under precisely the same
cover. And yet each of them has a
scent that marks him just as distinctly
to my hounds from his fellows as his
appearance marks him under your de-
liberate study =.
"And do you expect me to believe
that the dogs can catch this scent from
the flying touch Of his thick shoes on
the hard ground?'
Undoubtedly. And further. He
may stop in a squad and change shoes
with q convict, and the dogs will still
follow him. On the hardest ground,
his scent will be plain to them, though
his shoe soles are half an inch thick.
When he runs through the woods
where his clothes touch the bushes,
they will trail him, heads up, in full
cry, fifty yards, running parallel, but
away from where he ram
'Do you mean that you can take fifty
corHicts, all clad in convict suits, let
them run through the bushes, then
send the convict the dogs are trailing,
through the same bushes, and the scent
of his body, left on the yielding twigs
as his clothes brush them, will lead the
hounds through the maze?"
Eyes; fifty yards away, they will
run it parallel at full speed. 70 prove
this, will start a convict. l will let
Others follow him through the woods.
l will let him make Il semicircle in the |
woods with fifty yards radius. When.
the hounds come to this, instead of fol-
lowing the curve they will scent the
opposite side of the circle, fifty yards
away, cut across to it, take the track
up there and follow it."
A gaunt convict, long of leg and
flank, was selected for the run. He
was told to put off quickly, circle in
the woods, take q swift run over the
fields, roads and through every squad
OF convicts he could find in his way.
This he did. The hounds were then
loaiing about the stockade yard as list
less a lot of dogs as ever We're seen. II
am tempted" said Mr.. Williams, "to
let the convict ride a horse for a mile
or two after he had run awhile. / have
had dogs to trail a convict on horse
back four miles, and then take the
track where he jumped from the
horse By this time the flying con-
Wet was q small speck on the broad
fields. and in amoment more had melt
ed into the horizon and was gone, as
indeed, he had found that liberty for
which bis soul painted, and had gone as {
the strong-winged birds go when they !
vanish in the blue ether.
In an hour we mounted our horses. '
The hounds We're still loafing in the g
sunshine. Suddenly Mr.. Williams, ;
sqnaring himself in his saddle, blew b
three quick. short blasts on the cows il
horn that hung at his side. As if by Il
the hounds awaked, and !
charged at his saddle-eager baying, D
''Nigger!" he said, senten-
Like the wind they were off, s
hose to the ground, tails up, c%ircling
ike beagles. Larger the circles grew, fl
he hounds silent as specters, eyes and h
lose eating the earth for its secret. y
They will pass over the tracks of con- a
let squads, but will open up on the IL
irst single track they find. If it is the Al
wrong track, we will simply sit still. in
hey will run it a hundred rods or So, Ii
nd noting our silence will throw it of hi
nd search again. When they get tho Pr
light track, we will halloo, and start W
fter the hound that has 1t. The 9TH W
rs will at once join him and the race p'
opened" ci
At last a red hound, careering like ye
lad across the field, halts suddenly, be
lmbles over himself, faces about, to
oses the ground eagerly, lifts his
cad, "A-a-o-o-o-w-ur and is off like
II arrow from a bowstring. "That's m
,e track" shouts Williams, and after 81
he bowling hound w 60. The other he
ogs join in pell-mell at first, then each luI
Dund true to the track, in full cry and pc
rafting gait. Away of to the left an
aptain James calls attention to a so
owing speok against The sky. "That /