HOUGHTON. 2.'.a HOUND. of many leading American auUiors, such as Emerson. Lon^jfellow, and Holmes. For many years Wibslcr'a International Dictionary has been printed liy the lUverside Press. HOUGHTON, hfl'tf/n or hou'ton, Riciiabd Mom KTo.N .lu..NKs, Lord. See Mil.nes, Richard MoNt'KTO.N. HOULTON. . town and the county-seat of -Aroostook County. Maine, 140 miles northeast of Bangor; on the Banfjor an<l AnxistiMik and the Canadian Pacific railroails (Map: Maine. H .3). It is surrounded by a farming and lumbering dis- trict, and has considerable coninicrrial impor- tance. There are a foundry and machine-shops, saw, planing, and molding mills, woolen-mills, starch-factories, a Hour-mill, a butter-factory, and a large slaiighter-house. The town has a public library ami the Ricker Classical Institute. The government is administered by town meet- ings. I'opiilation, in 1S90, 4015; in"l900, 4C8G. HOUMA, hon'mi'i. A town and the parish-seat of Terrebonne Parish, l.a.. 70 miles southwest of New Orleans ; on the Bayou Terrebonne, and on the iSouthem Pacific Railroad (Map: Louisi- ana, E 4). It has several oyster-packing estab- lishments, a large moss-factory, manufactures of sugar, molasses, and lumlicr. and considerable trade in rice and grain. Population, in 1890, 1280; in 1900, 3212. HOUUD (AS. htinrl, OIIG. hunt. Ger. Hutid, Goth. Iiunds : connected with Lat. cania. Gk. Kvuf, kyOn, Olr. cu, Lith. sz'i, Skt. iian. dog). Broad- ly, the term 'hound' distinguishes hunting-dogs, who follow their animal qu.lrry by scent, from the greyhound group, who hunt by sight; and also from the field dogs (q.v.). Hounds, then, comprise the blomlhound or sleuth-hound, as he is still called in Scotland, the buck or stag hound, the foxhound, the ot- ter-hound, the harrier, the beagle, the basset, and the Great Dane. The origin of all the breeds of hounds is the Talbot, or old Southern hound (Corn's satinx of Linna-us), of which prob- ably no true example exists to-day, although a few were preserved well up into the nineteenth century. These dogs were remarkable for their great size and strength, the ileptli of the chest, length of ears, and the breadth of the head in the region covering the olfactory ner'es; hence their capacity for tracing the 'sleuth,' 'slot,' or track. Before the Christian Era the bloodhound or sleuth-hound of Great Britain had become so celebrated for these qualities that, as we know- on the authority of Gratius. they were imported into Gaul. Strabo, who flourished somewhat later, confirms this, and Oppian praises their powers of scent and their courage. The Bi.ooniioiNn. This hound is the nearest to the original Talbot, and for centuries was the hound of the huntsman whose quarry had to be followed by scent. During many centuries he was the principal agent in Europe in bringing the bear, the boar, and the stag to bay; but swifter breeds were gradually evolved, and the bloodhound's occupation dwindled to that of employing his extraordinary capacity to maintain a trail, however crossed and faint, in tracking human poachers to their hiding-places. Had it not been for this nee<l. the breed would in all probability have entirely disappeared, as. in fact, it nearly had, when in the middle of the nineteenth century a few enthusiasts took up the breeding and restored the dog to his rightful position. The stories of carnage following the dog's overtaking man do not apply to the true blwxlhound. When he hjis treed or fixed his man, he gives tongue and takes care that tho pursued does not escape ; but he will never lay hold viciously and maliciously. The blood- hound's practical use to-d;iy is in tracking fugi- tives, refugees, and missing persons; and for this purpose packs of them are maintained b many public authorities. Their capacity to do this borders on the incredible; for, however the foot- steps of the one sought for may be crossed by ethers, in country or street, the nose of this hound, once it has taken up the trail, will follow it. Running water is apparently the only medium that will baffle him. This sense is, of course, natural; but to develop it and bring the dog's use of it into subjection, and make it intelligently useful, the puppy has to be trained and his powers gradually extended and kept in practice. The characteristics adopted as the standard by the American Bloodhound Club depict the modern dog. He should be from 2.5 to 27 inches high at the shoulder for dogs, and a little less for the other sex; in color, black and tan; the black, ex- tending to the back, top of neck, and top of head, is, however, always more or less mixeil with tan. The tan is a deep rich retl ; the coat should be short and hard on the body, but silky on the ears and top of head. The ears should be long enough to overlap each other when drawn down together in front of the dog's nose. The eyes should be hazel, deeply sunk, and with tri- angular lids, showing the third eyelid or 'haw.' The head should be large in all dimensions ex- cept width; the muzzle deep and square; the brows fairly prominent. The skin covering tho forehead and cheeks is wrinkled, and the general expression of the whole head is majestic. The neck is long, to enable him to drop the head to the trail without altering his pace. The chest and ribs wide and deep, and the legs straiglit and muscular; the ankles of full size, and the feet round and cat-like. The FoxiiOfND. As a breed distinctly char- acteristic and .solely used for the huntir.g of the fox, the foxhound is a comparatively modem development, not reaching further back than two hundred years; but it has been developed from the bloodhound and the Talbot or old Southern hound, traceable for two thousand years. Micn England gradually became more or less de- forested, and animals of the chase had more open spaces for their speed, it naturally followed that this dog had to have increased pace, and for all kinds of game except the very heaviest the bloodhound and Talbot gradually gave place to lighter hounds grafted on the old model. The I stag or buck hound was the first variety of what we now class under the general term 'foxhound.' He was the first to come, and practically the first to go. for not one pack of the larger buckhound exists to every hundred packs of the tnie fox- hound. The est.ablishment of regular packs of hounds for hunting the fox, the first of which was the Pytchley in 1750. stamped the breed on the lines from which the English hound has never varied — indeed, into some packs not a single drop of extraneous Wood has ever been introduced. Most of the packs established in the latter part of that century are still, so far as other blood is concerned, in unbroken exist-
