THE GREYHOUNDS. 161 



Asia, bears a stamp of originality we cannot justly 

 assume to be the offspring of crosses, or of a migra- 

 tion to a climate which produced its present very 

 distinct form of body, and still greater singularity of 

 head;* for, in the greyhound, the plane of the 

 nose is greatly prolonged, and, with little elevation, 

 passes up the forehead nearly to the occiput ; the 

 whole head is narrow and sharp ; the ears light, and 

 semi-pendulous ; the neck long ; the lumbar parts 

 of the back very considerably arched ; the abdomen 

 drawn up, and the chest deep ; the limbs are slen- 

 der, and greatly lengthened; the buttocks much 

 elevated : the whole structure evincing the greatest 

 elegance, and giving to the animal more swiftness 

 than to any other carnivorous beast. Destined by 

 nature to be a hunter on open plains, the eyes are 

 prominent and clear ; but the olfactory powers not 

 being wanted, where so much velocity is granted, 

 they give way for the purpose of allowing greater 

 and prolonged freedom to the respiratory organs ; 

 and English greyhounds have been known to run 

 eight miles in twelve minutes of time, in pursuit of 

 a hare that then dropped dead, and not including a 

 variety of turns and doublings, which necessarily 

 checked the velocity and increased the exertion ! 



But the greyhounds of antiquity, excepting among 

 the Egyptians and Asiatics, were probably not of 



* According to Buffon, the greyhound forms a race derived 

 from the French Matin, which we have pretty well shown did 

 not exist in Gaul at the time of the Romans, unless it was 

 brought in by the Teutonic Cymbers. 



