282 CHINESE DOGS. 



driven from the mountains of North "Wales or Scotland, 

 where they are known to breed, by rigorous weather and 

 deep snows that had lately fallen. 



LETTER Oil. 



TO THE SAME. 



MY near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service of the 

 East India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch of 

 the Chinese breed from Canton ; such as are fattened in that 

 country for the purpose of being eaten. They are about the 

 size of a moderate spaniel; of a pale yellow colour, with 

 coarse bristling hair on their backs ; sharp upright ears, and 

 peaked heads, which give them a very fox-like appearance. 

 Their hind legs are unusually straight, without any bend at 

 the hock, or ham ; to such a degree as to give them an awk- 

 ward gait when they trot. "When they are in motion, their 

 tails are curved high over their backs like those of some 

 hounds, and have a bare place each on the outside from the 

 tip midway, that does not seem to be matter of accident, 

 but somewhat singular. Their eyes are jet-black, small, and 

 piercing ; the insides of their lips and mouths of the same 

 colour, and their tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw 

 on each hind leg ; the dog has none. When taken out into 

 a field, the bitch showed some disposition for hunting, and 

 dwelt on the scent of a covey of partridges till she sprung 

 them, giving her tongue all the time. The dogs in South 

 America are dumb ; but these bark much in a short thick 

 manner, like foxes, and have a surly, savage demeanour, like 

 their ancestors, which are not domesticated, but bred up in 

 sties, where they are fed for the table with rice-meal and 

 other farinaceous food. These dogs, having been taken on 



animals, by changing gradually their food, at last brought some of the falcons 

 to live on a vegetable diet ; and, as a reverse, fed a pigeon upon animal sub- 

 stances proving that, by degrees, the natural food of an animal may be 

 changed, for a time at least, without harm. W. J. 



