NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 221 



LETTER LVIII 



MY near neighbor, 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 color, with coarse 

 bristling hairs 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 awkward 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 color, 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 demeanor 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 board as soon as weaned, could 

 not learn much from their dam ; yet they did not relish flesh 

 when they came to England. In the islands of the Pacific 

 Ocean the dogs are bred upon vegetables, and would not eat 

 flesh when offered them by our circumnavigators. 



We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, up- 

 right, fox-like ears ; and that hanging ears, which are esteemed 

 so graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and cultivation. 

 Thus, in the " Travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to 

 China," the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow-sledges, 

 near the river Oby, are engraved with prick ears, like those 

 from Canton. The Kamschatdales also train the same sort 



