CANINE MONSTROSITIES 257 



a length of nearly fifty-five inches. This is only 

 guesswork, as it was high up, embedded in the 

 wall where we could not get at it. Sheep horns 

 and skulls of ibex formed an imposing dado ; but 

 the wapiti killed " many tens of years ago " was 

 one of the finest I have ever seen. 



Not far from here coal is found in great quanti- 

 ties, and if, in the future, Lanchow is connected 

 to Europe by rail, there should be no scarcity of 

 fuel. The inns were far from luxurious, and we 

 sampled a variety of 'kangs and over-ventilated 

 hostelries. Their one common factor lay in the 

 multiplicity of dogs and their extraordinary forms. 

 They all had puppies, which never resembled their 

 parents save in the fact that they were dogs. I 

 saw one poor brute minus both its hind legs 

 walking on its front feet, its body balanced aloft, 

 as may be seen in any performing troupe at a 

 music-hall. Another, with the head of a ferret 

 and hairless rat's ears, looked as if it had become 

 entangled in a hearthrug early in life, and having 

 failed to extricate itself, was bent on making the 

 best of a bad job. Yet again, as we were quietly 

 dining, a thing, I can call it nothing else, suddenly 

 appeared in the doorway, wearing an arrogant and 

 lofty expression. One extremity terminated in 

 the head of a pug, the other in the feathery tail 

 of a setter, whilst a fox terrier's legs supported 

 the body of a dachshund. At one inn a big 

 white dog prowled round the yard, snarling at any 

 and every object which it encountered, snapping 

 at the heels of the mules, and making itself a 

 general nuisance. 



At Ansi-chow we had exchanged one of the 



