CHINESE DOGS. 261 



from the mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where they 

 are known to breed, by rigorous weatner and deep snows that 

 had lately fallen. 



LETTER CII. 



TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



MY near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service of 

 the East India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch 

 of the Chinese breed from Canton ; such as are fattened in 

 tHat country for the purpose of being eaten : they are about 

 the size of a moderate spaniel ; of a pale yellow colour, with 

 coarse bristling hair on their backs ; sharp, upright ears, and 

 peaked heads, which give them a very fox-like appearance. 

 Their hind legs are unusually straight, without any bend at 

 the hock, or ham, to such a degree as to give them an awkward 

 gait when they trot. When they are in motion, their tails 

 are curved high over their backs, like those of some hounds, 

 and have a bare place each on the outside, from the tip mid- 

 way, that does not seem to be matter of accident, but somewhat 

 singular. Their eyes are jet black, small, and piercing ; the 

 insides of their lips and mouths of the same colour, and their 

 tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw on each hind leg ; 

 the dog has none. When taken out into a field, the bitch 

 shewed some disposition for hunting, and dwelt on the scent 

 of a covey of partridges till she sprung them, giving her tongue 

 all the time. The dogs in South America* are dumb ; * but 

 these bark much in a short, thick manner, like foxes ; and have 

 a surly, savage demeanour, like their ancestors, which are not 

 domesticated, but bred up in sties, where they are fed for the 

 table with rice-meal and other farinaceous food. These dogs, 

 Having been taken on board as soon as weaned, could not learn 

 much from their dam ; yet they did not relish flesh when they 

 came to England. In the islands of the Pacific Ocean, the 

 dogs are bred up on vegetables, and would not eat flesh when 

 offered them by our circumnavigators. 



We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, 

 upright, fox-like ears ; and that hanging ears, which are 

 esteemed so graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and 



* The dogs which Captain Franklin brought from the Arctic Regions 

 were dumb, and are never known to bark in their native country ; but a 

 young one, that was whelped here, has learnt to imitate his fellows. ED. 



