H U N H U N 397 and deer, but the sport, though followed up with a con siderable amount of enthusiasm, is not carried out in a manner strictly in accordance with English ideas. The weak point in French hunting is that the huntsmen do not seem to possess a particularly accurate knowledge of the habits and characteristics of the animal they pursue. Then again their system of kennel management is not what it might be. To show sport in the vast forests, the hounds should be in good health and well-trained, and there should be plenty of them. Of late years, however, more atten tion has been paid to hound breeding and kennel manage ment, and with encouraging results. (E. D. B.) telll. HUNTINGDON", or HUNTS, an inland county of England, situated between 52 9 and 52 35 N. lat. and 3 E. and 30 W. long., and bounded on the 1ST. and W. by Northampton, S. by Bedford, and E. by Cambridge. Its extreme breadth is at the middle, from which it narrows gradually and irregularly towards its north and south ends. Its extreme length from north to south is about 30 miles, and its extreme breadth from east to west about 23 miles. The area extends to 229,575 imperial acres, or 353 square miles. Among English counties it is the smallest, with the exception of Middlesex and Rutland; and Rutland is the only English county it surpasses in population. The surface of the county is low, and, with the exception of the Fen district, pleasantly undulating. For the most part it is bare of trees. A low ridge of hills enters the county from the south near Potton, and runs in a northward direction until it terminates in the Ouse valley near Hunt ingdon ; and a branch of the Cambridgeshire hills enters the south-east part of the county, and from Huntingdon runs north-west to Wansford. The north-eastern part of the county, comprising 50,000 acres, or one-fifth of its whole extent, belongs to the great " Fen " district extending throughout the counties of Cambridge, Lincoln, Northamp ton, Norfolk, and Suffolk. The principal rivers are the Ouse and Nen. The Ouse from Bedfordshire skirts the borders of the county near St Neots, and after flowing north to Huntingdon takes an easterly direction past St Ives into Cambridgeshire on its way to the Wash. It is navigable for barges as far as Bedford, and in the fen dis trict constitutes a means of transport for the agricultural produce of the county. The Nen, which is also navigable, skirts the northern border, and quitting it at Peterborough enters the Wash below Wisbeach, in Cambridgeshire. Various cuts and drains which join the Nen and Ouse are also made use of for navigation. Geology, Soil, and Agriculture. Geologically Hunt ingdonshire belongs to what is known as the Oolite system. The low round hills in the south-eastern part of the county are composed of ironsand. They contain a band of copro- lites, and there is a strip of greensand on the south-eastern border. The central and larger part of the county displays the Oxford clay, which lies between the middle and lower Oolite. It reaches a depth of nearly 100 feet, and passes under the Fens. The Fens are composed of fine mud, deposited formerly by the sea, intermixed with beds of peat, in which are frequently found the remains of animals, frequenters of the old forest, such as the elk, the red-deer, the bear, the beaver, and the wolf. The hills on the border of Northampton are of the stonebrash or forest marble. The Oolite formation is very fossiliferous. Large masses of fossil wood converted into jet or iron pyrites are found in the Oxford clay. Glacier or boulder clay contain ing chalk and flint deposits is met with in nearly every part of the county. The soil is generally fertile, and culti vation is of an advanced kind. In the fen district the soil is of a blue peaty nature, resting on a subsoil of white marly clay. After being drained and mixed with clay it is very productive, but much damage is often done to the crops by the prevalence of frost and fogs. In the fen dis tricts a four-years system of cropping green-crops, barley, seed-clovers, and wheat is the most common. The " Meres" of Whittlesea, Ramsey, and Ugg, at one time much resorted to by sportsmen for their wildfowl and fish, have now been drained, and, notwithstanding the expensive- ness of the process, such is the fertility of their beds that the outlay was speedily more than repaid. The Oxford clay, which extends to an area of 120,000 acres, is of very various soils according as the Oolite rocks crop to the sur face. The greater part is under cultivation, and much im provement has lately been effected by drainage; on account of the tenacity of the clay the drains often require to be placed very close. Much of the soil is, however, undrained and uncultivated, and, though partly used for pasturage, must on the whole be regarded as mere waste land. On the drained pasturage a large number of cattle are fed. In this district the system of cropping varies considerably, but a modification of the four-course shift is the most common fallow sown sometimes with winter tares, tur nips, mangold, or mustard; barley; beans where tares were sown on the fallow, and clover where green crops were sown ; wheat. A six-years course of fallow, barley, seed-clovers, wheat, beans, and wheat is, however, not uncommon, especially on the best soils. The third district, comprising the gravel of the Ouse valley, embraces an area of 50,000 acres. On the banks of the Ouse it consists of fine black loam deposited by the overflow of the river, and its meadow s form very rich pasture grounds. The upland district is under arable culture, and is generally cultivated on a four-course system of wheat, green crops, barley, and seed-clover. Market-gardening is prosecuted ; and willows are largely grown in the fen district. The farms vary in size from 200 to 500 acres, ranging chiefly between 200 and 300. The farm-houses are generally of an inferior kind, and the farm-buildings are often quite inadequate for the shelter and accommodation of the stock. The labourers generally live in villages and hamlets, in cottages of the most miserable description, having mostly mud walls ; but many cottages of a better class have been built within the last few years. The county is well sup plied with turnpike roads ; and the parish and occupation roads, formerly in a bad state of repair, have been lately much improved. The most modern improvements in farm implements are in general use. According to the agricultural returns for 1879 the total area of arable land was 209,610 acres, of which 96,533 were under corn crop, 21,931 under green crop, 17,121 under rotation grasses, 60,484 permanent pasture, and 13,531 fallow. The area under woods was 20,714 acres. Wheat, which in 1879 cropped 43,129 acres, is much more largely grown than any other grain, and occurs twice in the six-years shift system in use on the better lands. Barley (27,118 acres) is the more frequent corn crop in the four-years shift system, only 10,247 acres being under oats. The quality of barley on many soils is lean and in ferior, and unsuitable for malting purposes. Beans and pease occupied 8948 and 6929 respectively. Mangold (3430 acres) and cabbage and similar green crops (2863 acres) are chiefly used for the feeding of sheep. Under turnips there were only 3778 acres, and under potatoes 3083. The number of cattle in 1879 was 27,358, or an average of 13 to every 100 acres under cultivation, as compared with 16-9 for England and 21 for the United Kingdom. Of these the number of cows and heifers in milk or in calf was 7536. Though Stilton in Huntingdon gives its name to a celebrated cheese, that variety is now made exclusively in the counties of Lincoln and Leicester ; and dairy farm
ing is not now much followed. The milk is now chiefly
