British Dogs. 



require it exists, we have called in the aid of the artist to explain our 

 meaning. The pencil greatly assists the pen in showing the difference 

 between closely allied breeds, and in this the several artists have in most 

 cases been eminently successful. 



No book on dogs would be complete without some notice of the 

 history and development of the various breeds, as far as it can be traced 

 by direct testimony or fair inference, but we have not attempted that 

 well-trodden ground which has hitherto proved so barren, and discussed 

 the vexed question of the origin of the dog, which remains to the present 

 time hopelessly obscure, and surrounded with the entanglements of con- 

 tradictory opinions waiting to be unravelled by a Darwin or a Wallace. 



In reference, however, to the origin of the very great number of 

 varieties which exist, and are ever increasing, we may in many instances 

 hazard a speculation which may be accepted or rejected at the reader's 

 option. 



We cannot accept the theory propounded by a recent writer that each 

 country or district had a peculiar type of wild dog created for it from 

 which the various breeds of domesticated dogs have sprung. Varieties 

 can, we think, be accounted for more reasonably and more in accord with 

 the result of modern research. 



Whoever would write the history of dogs must write the history of 

 man, for in periods as remote as history reaches we find this animal 

 associated with him as his useful servant. When or how the close 

 intimacy sprung up which mutual advantage has -kept and improved 

 century after century, it may be impossible, with accuracy, to determine ; 

 but when we consider the extraordinary capacity for service natural to 

 the dog, his wonderful scenting powers, his great speed, his strength 

 and endurance, his marvellous cunning, his indomitable courage, his 

 power of arranging, and facility in carrying out a preconcerted attack on 

 his prey, we see a combination of qualities in the dog of the greatest 

 value to man in his most primitive state, which man's superior intelligence 

 would quickly perceive and lead him to wish to appropriate to his own 

 use, and possibly the conquest was rendered easy by a natural instinct in 

 the lower animal to trust, love, and serve him. At least in favour of 

 this we have the fact, which applies with more or less force to all breeds, 

 that their greatest pleasure is in serving man and receiving his praise. 



When man depended largely on the spoils of the chase for sustenance 



