232 Modern Dogs. 



One recent writer tells us that, even so far back 

 as 1800, certain Borzoi of the Courland strain were 

 sold for from 7000 to 10,000 roubles a piece, which, 

 in our money, cannot be computed at less than from 

 iooo/. to 15007. a head ! No wonder that so valu- 

 able a hound has become extinct (on the principle 

 that the best always die), and it is interesting to learn 

 that, at a time when we in England were giving 5o/. 

 each or little more for our verv best hounds, more 

 than twenty times that sum was being paid in 

 Russia for similar quadrupeds. 



Still the Borzoi always did flourish in the 

 dominions of the Czar, and at the present time the 

 Imperial kennels at St. Petersburg contain sixty-two 

 full-grown Borzois and an entry of forty-five puppies. 

 There are fourteen men kept to look after and to 

 train them to their proper work, and the nature of 

 this I have already stated. Whatever may be urged 

 to the contrary, it must further be said that, in pace 

 and general excellence for hare coursing purposes, 

 this Russian hound is far behind our own good 

 greyhound. 



