The Hound
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Fictional animal.
In the Sherlock Holmes stories
The "Hound" was a huge cross-bred dog that Jack Stapleton kept hidden on the moor, treated with phosphorus to make it glow, and used to terrorize and hunt his victims — first Sir Charles Baskerville, then Sir Henry Baskerville (and Selden accidentally) — while exploiting the old Baskerville legend to mask his crime.
- According to the legend : It was "a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon" (HOUN 219).
- In reality, it was not a pure bloodhound and it was not a pure mastiff, but it appeared to be a combination of the two — gaunt, savage, and as large as a small lioness (HOUN 3514).
- It looked "hellish" because Jack Stapleton applied Phosphorus preparation on the hound maw (HOUN 3517).
- Jack Stapleton kept it in an old tin mine on an island in the heart of the Mire (HOUN 3591).
- It killed Selden accidentally because the convict had the old clothes of Sir Henry Baskerville (HOUN 2990).
- The Hound was killed by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (HOUN 3500).
