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OLD SEMINOLES JOURNEY Remarkable Homing Instinct of a Kentucky Foxhound Traveled Six Hundred HIIlcM From FromKentucky Kentucky o Arkansas Grousing GrousingSlaiiy Slaiiy Rivers on the Way The classical American case of the nomine hound I take to l u tliat of the hound once famous as Old Seininolc now gathered to her fathers but onre well known at Hot Springs Arkansas where she was owned by a fox hunter Judge C Floyd Huff That gentleman recently told the facts to a writer in the Saturday Evening Post PostAt At 11 a in on the morning of November 12 1912 at Crab Orchard Kentucky Old Seminole with six other dogs was put down on1 a rather cold trail of a red fox Her owner had brought the hound there and entered it in the animal meet of the National Fox Hunters of which society lie was a member There were present at the time these dogs took the trail such famous hunters as Col Tack Chinn of Harrodslmrg Steve Walker and Ed Walker of the famous Walker family of Ken ¬ tucky the same family which established the great strain known as the Walker hounds something like a half century or so ago agoThese These three gentlemen with Judge Huff waited as the dogs puzzled on the cold trail for a time but it was late and the morning was dry so they gave it up All the dogs but one came back that morning Old Seminole did not come back that night She was at that time about COO miles from her own home which was at Hot Springs in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas She had been brought by rail to this Kentucky country with which she was entirely unfamiliar Old Seminole was given up as a lost dog She was well known to be a cold nosed dog and slow to Kive up any trail But the limit of hope was past and her owner had to go back home to Arkansas leaving his dog lost in a strange country He had circulars printed and distributed offering a reward for knowledge of the missing hound and had adver ¬ tisements placed lu the local papers of several counties round Crab Orchard Naturally also all the local fox hunters were eager for him to find his hound and promised to do what they could for him himHut Hut no Word came back of Old Seminole She had disappeared absolutely Naturally this caused her owner much grief for she was of the old AValker strain of hounds a strong upstanding specimen and not of the type scientifically described as Potlickerus Kentuckiensis KentuckiensisA A ticrsoiial peculiarity of Old Seminole was the aloofness of her disposition She was slow to make friends with anyone outside her own family familySIX SIX HUNDRED MILES STRAIGHT HOME HOMEOn On January 22 1913 more than two months after Old Scniinolo had disappeared in Kentucky she came limping into her owners yard at Hot Springs Arkansas She was then as lean ragged sore eyctl and footsore a dog as any man ever laid eyes upon She was apparently on her last legs and just able to walk At first it did not seem she would live but with good care she recovered to live and hunt many another day dayNo No word ever was had of this hound by anyone in or near Crab Orchard If anyone aided her on her way home that fact was never known It would havu been impossible for anyone but a few in Kentucky or Arkansas to have1 told whose dog it was S far as reasonably may be believed therefore Old Semiiiole made her way home abso ¬ lutely on her own hook It is thought that her case is the most extraordinary one ever recorded of the homing instinct pfthe foxhound foxhoundIn In order to make the journey from Crab Orchard Kentucky to Hot Springs Arkansas Old Seininole would have to travel in a beelinc about COO mile She had to cross the Mississippi Ktver as well as the Arkansas Kivcr the White lUver and count ¬ less lesser streams This was in the dead of win ¬ ter No one knows where she did it or how she did it If anyone carried her across any river on a boat or railway train no record of that is known The fact that the Ohio hound was seen swimming the Ohio River in midwinter is the best ground for the belief that Old Seminole swam the Mississippi no doubt at a imint where it was alialf iniloor more in width not counting the bayous which may have run alongside No fox hunter doubts for a moment that this hound swam these rivers We shall have to accredit her journey home to the in ¬ domitable courage the hiuh heart of a hound fol ¬ lowing the unerring instinct of direction which the hound has but which no human being is able to understand Old Seminole wanted to get back home she went there
