600 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



LETTER XVII. 



SHEEP-DOGS, WOOL DEPOTS, &c. 



The estimation in which dogs have been held by different nations, &c...The Sheep-Dog — Buffon'a 

 description of him... The Spanish Sheep-Dog — Origin— Introduction into the United States— Value — 

 Arrogante — his history.. -The Hungarian Sheep-Dog — Mr. Paget's description of— probable origin— 1 he 

 Mexican Sheep-Dog — -Mr. Lyman's description of — Mr. Kendall's. ..South American J'heep-Oogs— Dar- 

 win's description of. ..The EngUsh Sheep-Dog — Mr. Gates's description of. ..Mr. Colman's.. .'I he Scotch 

 Sheep-Dog — Mr. Hogg's account of.. Mr. Peters's. ..Necessity of accustoming Sheep to a dog. ..Wool 

 Depots— Mr. Blanchard's account of their origin — Letter from Mr. Peters, describing their object, methods 

 of doing business, and advantages — Utility of these depots — their especial utility to the South. . .A cori'ec- 

 tion — Mr. Ruftin. ..Note in relation to Austi-alia— Statistics of its Wool Trade brought down to 1846. 



Dear Sir : — In all ages of the world, and among nearly all nations, 

 savage and civilized,* the dog has been the friend and cherished com- 

 panion of man. The Egyptians placed him among their gods. The 

 Greeks held him in the highest estimation. His figure mingles with that 

 of warriors and demi-gods on their friezes ; and Argus, the dog of 

 Ulysses, lives as immortal in the Odyssey, {vide Book XVIl.,p. 344 <o 400) 

 as his sagacious master, or the faithful Penelope. Alexander the Great 

 founded a city in honor of a dog ! The Romans treated him with similar 

 respect. His skin covered the statues of the sacred Lares; his figure, as 

 the emblem of care and vigilance, stood at the feet of these household 

 gods — venerated and loved as the tutelary manes of departed ancestors. 

 Horace in his Ode to Cassius Severus [Book V., Ode VI.,) compares him- 

 self to the Molossian, or the tawny Spartan dog, which defends the flocks, 

 and with ears erect, pursues the wild beast through the deep snows. Virgil, 

 in the delightful Georgics, admonishes the Roman shepherds not to neglect 

 the care of their dogs : 



" Nee tibi cura canum fuerit postrema : sed un^ 

 Veloces Sparta; catulos, acreraque Molossum, 

 Pasce sero pingui : nunquam, custodibus illis, 

 Nocturnum stabulis furein, incursusque luporum, 

 Aut impacatos a tergo horrebis Iberos. " 



\_Gcorg. Liber III., commencing at line 404. 



Thus translated by Sotheby : 



Nor slight thy dogs ; on whey the mastiffs feed, 



Molossian race, and hounds of Spartan breed; 

 Beneath their care, nor wolves, nor thieves by night, 

 Nor wild Iberian shall thy fear excite. 



These " Spartan hounds, " I may remark, par parenthesis, are the ones 

 spoken of by Shakspeare, in that glorious description of the music of a 

 pack in full cry, and of the points of a hound, in Midsnm77ier-Nig?U' s 

 Dream : 



Hippolita. — I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once, 



When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear 

 With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear 

 Such gallant chiding ; for, besides the groves, 

 The skies, the fountains, every region near 

 Seemed all one mutual cry : I never heard 

 So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. 



Theseus. — My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 



So flewed, so sanded ; and their heads are hung 

 With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; 

 Crook-kneed, and dew-lapped, like Thessalian bulls; 

 Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells, 

 Each under each. A cry more tunable 

 Was never hallo'd to, nor cheered with horn. 

 In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly. 



* The only exceptdons which now occur to me are the Jews, the Hindoos, and the Mahonimedan nations 

 and tribes. 



(1120) 



