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Olav Wallo (con’d) Then there was Finna, 467389, in whelp to Tas, brought over by Leon F. Whitney of dog breeding and feeding fame. On the West Coast, William H. and Cecelia Maxwell, Lakeside, Washington, who imported Senny V, 646103, from Norway, raised and sold many Elkhounds. The first import from England on record was Bon Bjerke, 649806, who came across the Atlantic in 1928. The following year W. F. Holmes of England sent over the first of many Elkhounds bearing the “of the Holm” suffix, Oscar of the Holm, 700962, by Finnegutten. These imports greatly improved the native breeding stock. In addition to those breeders already mentioned there were J. W. Essex, Seattle, Washington; Mrs. Lucas Combs, Lexington, Kentucky; John R. Brainerd, Enfield, Massachusetts; and Winsor Gale, Weston, Massachusetts. The first import from Scotland was Ch. Vingo of Inverailort, 742889, bred by Mrs. C. H. J. Cameron-Head. He sired more than a score of fine Elkhounds, including five Kettle Cove champions, three of which were from imported Goro of the Fjiords. Vingo, by FinnegutTHE
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ten, was the first Elkhound to win Best of Breed at Morris and Essex (1933) and Westminster (1932). The good-headed, imported Ch. Binne av Glitre, 747169, repeated the feat and so did imported Ch. Bjonn, 852513. Bjonn, who sired two Lindvangen champions in 1935, had a well proportioned body and excellent tail but is reported to have had a rather narrow skull. From Canada came Bringe av Solskin, A-261159, and from Sweden came Rapp av Gra, A-280725, owned by George H. Earle III, then Governor of Pennsylvania. It was said of Rapp, who was Best of Winners at Westminster in 1938, that he had good substance but that his tail was not tightly curled. Elkhounds were associated with other famous people. For instance, imported Ronnie of Glitre (Skrub av Glitre ex Bringe II av Glitre), bred by T. Hemsen, Norway, was owned by President Hoover. An Elkhound from the Glitre Kennels was a gift to the President from the people of Norway, a small but precious token of what he did for his friends over there in their hour of need. The President transferred one of his Elkhounds, Belleau of Elglia, to Com-
mander C. E. Rosendahl, of the Akron, which was with the fleet in the Pacific. Another Elkhound fancier was the King of Sweden, who owned Ch. Pang. Then, too, there was Lady Halifax, who was the wife of the British ambassador to Washington and the first President of the British Elkhound Society. That famous Alaskan musher, Arthur Walden, owned Elkhounds. He said that pound for pound they would out pull any other dogs, provided that the snow was not too deep for the Elkhound’s short legs. A Maine race driver stated that his best dog was an Elkhound fifteen pounds lighter than the others. The versatility of the breed is further emphasized by the fact that it can serve equally well when hunting small game like pheasants of big game like bear. A dog of Boyesen’s breeding was credited with 72 cougars in two seasons of hunting in Washington. in fact the Elkhound is ideally suited for this work, because he is the result of hundreds of generations of selective breeding by Mother Nature herself. It is not only as a hunter, but also as a guard and house dog that this inhabitant of