212 DOG OF THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. 



a long-haired breed, resembling the sheep-dog ; they 

 are of divers colours, variously spotted, entirely 

 black, or w^hoUy vv^hite. Their food is fish, and the 

 remains of what the natives eat themselves; the 

 mode of attaching them is by the middle of the 

 belly, not as we practise by the neck ; they are in 

 favour with that people, who nevertheless kill them 

 for food, for their skins, or to make fringes to their 

 dresses with the hair. These animals are stupid, 

 having little more sagacity than sheep. The same 

 author declares the dogs of the South Sea Islands to 

 liave very large heads and small eyes, with pointed 

 ears and short tufted tails. 



What has been stated regarding the variety of 

 races of the canine family to be met with in great 

 islands and the shores of straits, we find confirmed 

 in the western hemisphere, about the Magellanic 

 Strait and the Fuegian Islands; for although the 

 native dogs of America north of the equator have 

 been already noticed, there remains still some ac- 

 count to be given of those to the south of it. On 

 the coasts, and wherever Europeans have pene- 

 trated, dogs introduced by them have multiplied, 

 and the wild aborigines have adopted them in pre- 

 ference to their own. Those of European origin, 

 carried to the west for the purposes of war, of 

 coursing, and of guarding cattle or plantations, 

 were, it may be assumed, numerically few in pro- 

 portion to the mongrels of all kinds which the 

 fancies of individual adventurers took in tlieir com- 

 pany; and all, it appears, on the continent, were 



