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 cultivation. Thus, in the 

 travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to China, 

 the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow-sledges 

 near the river Obey are engraved with prick-ears, 

 like those from Canton. The Kamschatdales also 

 train the same sort of sharp-eared peak-nosed dogs 

 to draw their sledges ; as may be seen in an elegant 

 print engraved for Captain Cook's last voyage round 

 the world. 



Now we are upon the subject of dogs, it may not 



be impertinent to add, that spaniels, as all sportsmen 



know, though they hunt partridges and pheasants 



as it were by instinct, and with much delight and 



alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones when 



offered as food ; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, 



though he is remarkable for finding that sort of 



i68 



