DOG. 



31 



Dog. 



Bull- 

 baiting. 



formed part of the auxiliaries of Columbus, in his con- 

 tests with the natives of St Domingo. The French, du- 

 ring the recent war in that island, carried on with the 

 revolted negroes, employed blood-hounds regularly 

 trained against them ; and they are even said to have 

 had the barbarity of throwing their captives to the dogs 

 to be devoured alive. In training the hounds to this 

 inhuman pursuit, we are told that they were confined 

 in a kennel sparred like a cage, and sparingly supplied 

 with the blood of other animals. The figure of a ne- 

 gro in wicker work, stuffed with blood and entrails, was 

 next provided as they grew a little older, and occa- 

 sionally exhibited in the upper part of the cage : the 

 dogs ferociously struggled against their confinement, 

 and, as their impatience increased,the effigy was brought 

 nearer and nearer, while their usual subsistence under- 

 went still greater diminution. At length it was resign- 

 ed to them, and while voraciously tearing it up and de- 

 vouring the contents, the caresses of the keepers en- 

 couraged their perseverance. Thus their animosity to 

 black men was excited in proportion to their attach- 

 ment to the whites; and they were sent out to the chace 

 when their training was considered complete. The 

 miserable negro had no means of escape : he was either 

 hunted down and torn to pieces, his wife and children 

 perhaps sharing his calamity ; or, if taking refuge on a 

 tree, he was betrayed by the yelping of the blood-hounds 

 into the power of his more savage pursuers. This, how- 

 ever, was not the full extent of the evil. " But indif- 

 ferently kept in the neighbourhood of Cape Frar^ois, 

 the dogs frequently broke loose, and infants were de- 

 voured in an -instant from the public way. At other 

 times they proceeded to the neighbouring woods, and 

 surprizing a harmless family of labourers at their sim- 

 ple meal, tore the babe from the breast of its mother, 

 or devoured the whole paity, and returned with their 

 horrid jaws drenched in the gore of those who were ac- 

 knowledged even in the eyes ofthe French army as in- 

 nocent, and therefore permitted to furnish them with 

 the produce of their labours.'' 



The stages of cruelty are progressive ; and those who 

 delight in the torture of animals, will soon be indiffe- 

 rent to the sufferings of mankind. Accordingly, the ru- 

 der nations universally enjoy ferocious contests, and 

 are gratified with the sight of blood. Lions, tigers, and 

 elephants, have been encouraged to tear each other in 

 pieces, where mutual antipathies ceased to operate; 

 and bulls have been fought against dogs in this coun- 

 try since the days of Claudian. But in the present 

 age, we may be surprized at the toleration of a prac- 

 tice, alike abhorrent to humanity, and inconsistent 

 with the feelings and manners of the British nation. 

 If the baiting of bulls was sport to our ancestors, 

 it certainly ought to excite nothing except commi- 

 seration for the pain of an innocent creature, and 

 disgust at the barbarity of those who can enjoy 

 it. In the reign of Henry II. bull-baiting was an 

 amusement ofthe London populace. Nay, much more 

 recently, Queen Mary entertained the French ambas- 

 sadors two successive days with an exhibition of this 

 kind in the year 1559. Queen Elizabeth, her sister, 

 repeated it to the ambassadors from Denmark in 1586 ; 

 and, what is more extraordinary, the former was 

 herself among the spectators. 1'aul Hciitzncr still later 

 describes the cruel diversion ofthe F.nglish people, to 

 whom the baiting of hull", bear^, and badgers, was 

 familiar ; and there is even reason to believe that the 

 horse was sometimes publicly worried to death, to glut 

 their savage appetites for a brutal spectacle. 



On all these and similar occasions, such as when a PS- 

 bull, jointly pursued by the dogs and their masters, ^"""Y"*^ 

 was hunted down or bruised to death with clubs, the 

 minstrels, a miscreant crew, claimed the slaughtered 

 animal as a perquisite. It is long since the worrying 

 of bulls in the streets of London was prohibited, but 

 the practice was widely extended, and the rings to 

 which the bull was chained for the certainty of under- 

 going aggravated torment, are still extant in many 

 towns and villages, where they are sometimes con- 

 verted to use. Posterity will scarcely credit, that only 

 a few years have elapsed since this savage custom was 

 defended in the British Parliament, as an innocent re. 

 creation, contributing to inspire the nation with valour. 

 But let us leave such prostitution of the courage and 

 docility of so valuable an animal as the dog, to consider 

 the benefits conferred by its domestication on mankind. 



From a very ancient period, dogs have been convert- Trained t 

 ed into beasts of burden, and yoked in harness to car- draw car- 

 riages ; and down to the present day, they are trained riages. 

 to the same services on the Continent of Europe, in 

 Asia, and America. But it is in the frozen regions of 

 the north, where the utility of the dog is so eminently 

 displayed, and where travellers, by its assistance, are 

 enabled to cross trackless deserts of snow, otherwise im- 

 passable. Marco Polo, a celebrated Venetian of the 

 thirteenth century, distinctly speaks of a country in 

 the north of Asia, difficult of access on account of the 

 intermediate mud and snow, from which great quanti- 

 ties of furs were carried in vehicles wanting wheels, by 

 means of dogs. The information he received on the 

 subject characterises the sledges of Greenland or Kamt- 

 schatka, now drawn by these animals. In this latter 

 country, the species employed is of a middle size, of va 

 rions colours, white, black, grey, or black and white, 

 of wolfish aspect, yet not unlike the shepherd's dog, or 

 its mongrel offspring. Its hair is rough, its tail re- 

 curved, and the ears pointed ; it cannot be taught to 

 hunt, and never barks but howls. Though regularly 

 trained to the draught, the dog of the Kamtschadale 

 and Greenlander seems less tractable and domesticated 

 than that of civilized countries, proving, perhaps, how 

 much its nature is modified by associations with man. All 

 that are thus occupied are castrated, to preserve them more 

 under controul. During the prevalence of ice and snow, 

 from five to ten are harnessed to a light sledge of wicker- 

 work, about three feet long, and one in breadth. The 

 driver is supported by a seat a yard above the ground, 

 and the whole frame rests on two curved pieces of 

 wood, or sometimes whalebone, which operate as skates 

 in gliding over the frozen snow. The total weight of 

 the sledge does not exceed ten pounds, in which journeys 

 incredibly long are safely accomplished. The Ivarness 

 is made of leather ; the dogs are arranged in pairs, 

 commonly with a leader of the whole in front, and 

 are fastened together by straps or reins through their 

 collars, fixed by a hook and chain to a ring in the fore 

 part of the sledge. If the journey be difficult, or the 

 burden heavy, the number of dogs is increased; and 

 when M. Lesseps brought the dispatches of La Perouse 

 over land from the harbour of Petrapowloski, 37 dogs 

 were harnessed to his sledge, and 45 to that of the 

 companion of his journey the governor-general KaslofT. 

 Thirty-five sledges were in company, drawn by nearly 

 300 dogs. But journeys of this description, though 

 generally successful, are not entirely void of danger. 

 The traveller, whose position is sidewise, and not di- 

 rected forward, must be careful to preserve the equilibri- 

 um of so slight a vehicle ; if it incline* to the 'right, he 



