SPORTING AND GUARD DOGS 



the purpose for which it has been from time to time most 

 useful has ended in the race becoming fixed by the modern 

 show-system as a guard-dog. " The modern mastiff has an 

 excellent nose but is of little or no use for sporting purposes." * 

 This type of dog cannot be the same as that which existed in 

 the sixteenth century. 



The Chinese Imperial hunts have been given up for a 

 century and upkeep of the dogs has long since ceased. It 



HOUND REPRESENTED ON HAN BAS-RELIEF OF THE HSIAO T'ANG SHAN 

 (FROM A RUBBING) 



may be that specimens may be found with the chiefs of some 

 of the Mongol tribes but with the gradual extinction of the 

 big game of China it is unlikely that many of the hounds exist. 



Representations of these hounds are found in certain 

 pictures of the K'ang Hsi and Ch'ien Lung period from 

 Jehol. 



Laufer figures hunting-dogs of the Han period from 

 rubbings taken from bas-reliefs at Hsiao T'ang Shan. These 

 may be roughly dated 150 B.C. One of these bas-reliefs, of 

 colossal size, shows eight hunters afoot, carrying nets over their 

 shoulders and eight dogs preceding them. 



" All the aforementioned greyhounds and hunting-dogs 



* " Chambers' Encyclopaedia." See Rev. M. B. Wynn's " History of the Mastiff," 

 1886. 



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