DOGS IN GENERAL 5 



the means of gathering, in this way, for some good 

 object, and, for aught I know, there may have been 

 dogs hard at work, during 1898-9, for " The Prince of 

 Wales's Hospital Fund," or other charitable objects! 



One use to which dogs were formerly put, as " Turn- 

 spits," and another as beasts of burden, I am pleased 

 to say are no longer allowed by law. I have often, 

 when a child, seen them employed in the latter capacity 

 in the West of England, drawing small, usually two- 

 wheeled carts, with not only the usual market stock 

 and trade utensils, but sometimes the owner, in shape 

 of a burly man or woman seated on the top, and not 

 unfrequently racing along country roads with the own- 

 ers of similar vehicles, often with two or three dogs to 

 each, harnessed in tandem fashion, the noise and ex- 

 citement of the cavalcade being very great, and an- 

 nouncing their approach long before their coming in 

 sight. I am very pleased that both these abuses of 

 dogs have been abolished here, although as beasts of 

 burden they are still extensively employed on the con- 

 tinent of Europe, and, I am bound to say, I have not 

 seen them ill treated, badly fed, or seeming neglected. 



Of course, we know that in the Arctic regions dogs, 

 as carriers, are actual necessaries, and that locomotion, 

 difficult and dangerous enough there under any cir- 

 cumstances, would be simply impossible without the 

 aid of the Esquimaux dogs, of which I have seen a 

 good deal, and handled many. They have a dense 

 double coat, are very wolf-like in expression and shape 

 of head, with small, pointed ears, oblique, sly-looking 

 eyes, rather long, arched necks, and tails with char- 



