The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-04

ling the dress suit case as unconcern-
edly as baby does rag doll.
Real alligator hide, this dainty aris-
tocrat. smelling with just the proper
strength of the proper perfume of the
season. 1t conjures up vision of daln-
ty miss, a vision that becomes reality
when Miss Uptodate comes tripping
gracefully, yet just trlt1e haughtlly
to the baggage counter and with
tinge of impertousness lays her check
down.
When. then, was the first truffle
hunter? 1t is difficult to assign him
name but it is pretty clear that he
hunted on four legs. Foxes, wolves,
badgers, have a decided relish for the
dusky tubers; nor are rats, and even
squirrels, exempt from the same weak
ness But chief among the roofing
fraternity is the wild boar, while
good many of his domesticated descen-
dants have also successfully carried on
the business. Dearly, however, as the
pig loves truffies, his owner loves them
still more; and in Southern Europe
trained porker is often employed in the
search for them. To many of the peas
ants such an assistant is invaluable,
for. guided by his movement, they are
enabled to mark down with precision
the spots likely to repay the trouble of
excavation. Where trufties exist
trained nose is not often mistaken in
their whereabouts, for their scent is
so peculiar and penetrating that the
point" is easily made. They are gen.
orally found about a foot below the
surface in light salcareous soil and
near-though seldom in-Woods of
beech. oak, or fir. The lowering of
small blue fly over certain spots is re-
garded by some experts as sign of
the presence of truftles. But the ma
jority of professional hunters find it
difficult to dispense with the services
of a trained four-footed assistant. On
the continent the habit of relying up
on the instinct of M. Cochon has so
long obtained that it is regarded as
matter of course. But, on our own
breezy downs and commons, the sight
of a pointer pig" leading the way,
with his owner marking down and
testing his observations, would be re-
garded as a little ridiculous. The
French hunters, however, look at it
through another pair of spectacles.
With them it is a dry matter of bus
mess, and they are not always skilled
in the training of dogs, the pleasure
of which was probably one of the first
incentives to cur own practice of this
precarous industry.
dog to be trained, and prize to be
won, were a sufficient temptation to
the rustic mind and we have still some
professional truffle hunters who do a
fair stroke of business in the mush-
room months. Uncertain it is and
must be, but constant observation and
experience can hardly fail to yield some
good results. There can be little
doubt that the skilled searcher knows
good deal more about the niceties of
the industry than he cares to divulge.
The quest doubtless adds to the enjoy
ment of a country ramble; and the
amateur who is happy in the friendship
of really intelligent dog may easily
acquire a taste for the pursuit. and
even fan a victim to its destinations.
The training of a suitable dog is not
difficult matter. The animal is first
familiarized with the scent of the truf
f1e, and his discovery of one purposely
hidden is rewarded with a morsel of
choice food. Some trainers bury
truffle in the ground; and the dog soon
comes to understand that his supper
depends upon his discovery of the
place, when he is sometimes encour-
aged to make the necessary excavation.
In practice, however, the educated nose
of the dog is all that is called upon,
his master performing the necessary
digging as often as a determined stand
is made The most intelligent and
trustworthy truffle dogs were original
1y an offshoot from the French poodle.
but a special breed was brought into
existence in the middle of the eight
zenith century. English hunters, how
ever, long preferred small kind of
mongrel terrier, which shared no doubt
in the poodle strain. With such dogs
they pursued for several years their
by no means Improbable calling, chief
1U 1lDOn tha chalk downs
the woodlands of Wiltshire, Sussex.
and Hamnshire One of the rnanst sue