200 THE DOG TRIBE. 



and this was more than Philip's iron nerves could stand. Up he 

 started, the hair of his tail smoking and crackling like a mutton- 

 chop on a gridiron. I kept my seat; and away went Philip, 

 scouring along the road with surprising swiftness. From that day 

 forward, although he had a disagreeable knack of depressing his long 

 ears and elevating his rump, he never attempted to lie down with me 

 on the public road. 



Now, if I had had a dog instead of a mule to deal with, the dog, 

 being of a pliant disposition, might have required a little coercion on 

 my part, and that would have been all. Whereas, the mule was 

 equally callous, both to anodyne and harshness; and, in order to 

 reduce him to anything in the shape of obedience, I was obliged to 

 apply the actual cautery which means, in unsophisticated English, 

 nothing more nor less than a red-hot poker. 



Were I asked an opinion concerning the pedigree of dogs, I 

 should say that the entire family of the dog may safely be reduced 

 to one species only that species consisting of innumerable varieties ; 

 so that, barring size, individuals of all these varieties would intermix 

 and produce productive issue. No matter whether we place a cur 

 at the head of the list, or a hound at the foot of it, there will be 

 offspring in abundance ; and the size of that offspring will depend 

 upon the size of its parents, "fortes creantur fortibus ; " whilst its 

 appetites, and the texture of its hair, will mostly depend upon 

 climate, time, and education. Thus let us take a fox-hound. There 

 is no puppy whelped a genuine fox-hound; but, size and speed 

 having been imparted to him by his parents, his profession through 

 life will entirely depend upon the manner in which he has been 

 brought up by man. When first introduced on the field of Nimrod, 

 his natural propensities will urge him to pursue the stag, the hare, 

 the rabbit, and the fox ; but, as he has to be an accomplished fox- 

 hound and nothing else, the huntsman, with an awfully long whip 

 in his hand, and with the emphatically pronounced words of " ware 

 rabbit ware hare" in his mouth, will, in due time, make the unedu- 

 cated brute comprehend that he is destined to become a thorough- 

 bred fox-hound the pride and delight of his country lord, and that 

 he must for ever give up all yearning to hunt and worry any 

 quadruped that may start up in his path, the fox alone excepted ; 



