58 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



considerable trouble you might be able to add a 

 few ornamental subjects, such as giving his paw, 

 and keeping guard over a coat or stick left in 

 his charge. He is a generalized beast, grandson 

 to the jackal, and first cousin to the cur of Europe 

 and the Eastern pariah. To this primitive, or 

 only slightly-improved type of dog, the colley 

 perhaps comes nearest of all the breeds we value ; 

 and when he is thrown back on nature he is "all 

 there, ' ' and not hindered as the pointer and other 

 varieties are by more deeply-rooted special in- 

 stincts. At all events, this individual took very 

 kindly to the rude life and work of his new com- 

 panions, and by means of his hardihood and in- 

 exhaustible energy, became their leader and su- 

 perior, especially in hunting. Above anything he 

 loved to chase a fox; and when in the course of 

 a ride in the valley one was started, he invariably 

 threw all the native dogs out and caught and killed 

 it himself. If these dogs had all together taken 

 to a feral life, I do not think the colley would 

 have been worse off than the others. 



It was very different with the greyhounds. 

 There were four, all of pure breed; and as they 

 were never taken out to hunt, and could not, like 

 the colley, take their share in the ordinary work 

 of the establishment, they were absolutely useless, 

 and certainly not ornamental. When I first no- 

 ticed them they were pitiable objects, thin as 

 skeletons, so lame that they could scarcely walk, 

 and wounded and scratched all over with thorns. 



