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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



whence the others sprang. The Cuban seems to have a dash of 

 Greyhound in him, and the British would appear to have been improved 

 by the intermixture of the old English Talbot, which I take to be a far 

 more genuine as well as more ancient animal. 



" The first to be described, therefore, is the African, and of him there 

 must be the least known — as far, at all events, as regards his original ex- 

 traction. The African Blood-hound is very seldom to be seen in this 

 country ; he sometimes resembles a very large and raw-boned Spanish 

 Pointer, (C. avicul'iris Hispan.') His ears are pendulous and fine in tex- 

 ture, about the length of a Foxhound's ; coat very fine, and skin ap- 

 parently thin ; colour generally dark liver-colour clouded with black, yet 

 sometimes tan ; muzzle nearly always black, as also the tip of his ears ; 

 head pretty large, and shaped like a Pointer's ; eyes placed towards the 

 front ; tail fine, and carried rather horizontally than erect. The appear- 

 ance and manners of this Dog are ferocious in the extreme ; he stands 

 about twenty-six inches high at the shoulder, often less, but seldom 

 more. 



" I saw one of these animals in London some time ago, which had been 

 brought from the Cape of Good Hope, and from him took my description ; 

 lie was the only African Blood-hound I have ever seen ; and as these 

 Dogs are apt to die when brought to a cold climate, I dare say few of my 

 readers (if any) have ever met with one of them. Two African Blood- 

 hounds were brought to England, and presented to the Tower Menagerie, 

 by Major Denham. A drawing of them may be seen in the first volume 

 of a very interesting work published by the Society for Promoting Enter- 

 taining Knowledge — entitled The Menageries. I was also shown a sketch 

 of one, and furnished with a description similar to the one I have given 

 above, by a friend who had spent some time at the Cape. These are 

 very swift Dogs, of exquisite sense and smell, great endurance, and in- 

 domitable courage. My account of the African variety ends here, and I 

 now come to one somewhat better known — one, at all events, concerning 

 which information is more easily obtained — viz., the Cuban or Spanish. 



" This animal does not differ so greatly in form from the former-described 

 variety as at first sight might be supposed. It is in general much taller, 

 is of a slighter make, beats its head higher, and is altogether a more im- 

 posing-looking Dog than the preceding. It is said to be inferior in smell, 

 which I conceive must be the case from the formation of the head and 

 nose ; but what it wants in scent it makes up in speed, being in this re- 

 spect little inferior to many Greyhounds. This Dog is to be found in 

 greatest perfection at present in South America ; many are brought from 

 the West Indian Islands also, but are scarcer there than on the Continent. 

 This is a very tall Dog, being frequently twenty-seven to twenty-eight 

 inches high at the shoulder : in his general shape he resembles a Smooth 

 Lurcher, or a cross between a Greyhound and a Mastiff; his head is thick 

 across the temples ; muzzle long and rather fine, yet by no means so small 

 as a Greyhound's ; ears something like a Greyhound's, but larger and 

 much more pendulous. This Dog's neck is long, and as he carries his 

 head well up, he has, when a good-sized specimen, a very noble appear- 

 ance ; his tail is moderately long, and tapers to the extremity ; it is very 

 slightly villous beneath ; colour generally tan shaded with black above — 

 sometimes liver-colour — and occasionally mouse-coloured or silvery-grey; 

 the muzzle and tips of his ears are generally darker than the rest of his 

 body — often black. This Dog, be it observed — and 1 state this on the 

 authority of a native of South America — is never seen mottled or of two 

 colours; that is to say, speckled or streaked, or black and white, &c. 

 When such is the case, rest assured that the Dog is not by any means 

 well-bred, but has probably had for one of his parents a Boar-hound or 

 Danish Dog. The eyes of this Dog are placed very much towards the 

 front of the head, and very close together, which I conceive must tend in 

 some measure to confine his vision to objects more immediately in front. 



•' This is the well-known Dog rendered so famous, or rather infamous, 

 from his having been employed by the Spaniards in their cruel and exter- 

 minating conflicts with the Americans. The same, also, since frequently 

 used in the capture of runaway slaves in the. West Indies. I have been 

 informed that on such occasions a small Dog of the Spaniel breed should 

 be used, called a Finder, as the Blood-hound is slow at hitting off the 

 trail unless so aided, not possessing the same nicety of smell that is dis- 

 played by the two other varieties. 



" He is a Dog of extreme courage ; is capable of much affection ; sel- 

 dom exhibits treachery unless to entrap a declared foe or a strange beggar- 

 man, on which occasions he has been known to simulate sleep, and thus 

 induce the unsuspecting man to pass within reach, on whom he would 

 certainly spring were he so unwary. Their manner of seizing and biting 

 closely resembles the practice of the Bull-dog, ( C. molossus ) They never 

 let go their hold when they have once fastened, but increase their mouth- 

 ful continually, making every effort to tear away the bit, which they not 

 unl'requently do. Let them once fasten on the throat of their foe, and, 

 whether uppermost or undermost, the battle is their own. One of these 

 Dogs killed a good-sized Bull-dog in about ten minutes, never having 

 changed the hold he got at first. I saw one of these Dogs opposed to a 



Bear, on which occasion he did very well, but Bruin having ripped the 

 skin off his shoulder, he declined further combat, and resigned the field 

 of battle in favour of a young Boar-hound, son of his Grace the Duke of 

 Buccleuch's Dog' Hector,' which, though barely eighteen . months old, 

 pinned the shaggy monster by the nose, hurled him to the ground, and 

 punished the poor Bear so severely, that in a few minutes the brute 

 howled for quarter, and was glad to yield, ' rescue or no rescue.' 1 feel 

 it my duty to remark, ' en parenthese' before going any farther, that al- 

 though I may thus mention ' combats des animaux,' or even minutely de- 

 scribe them, yet I condemn them in tolo — as cruel and degrading to hu- 

 man nature. I saw many such scenes when a much younger man than 

 I am now. My blood was warmer than it is at present, and in the ex- 

 citement of the scenes I witnessed, I forgot for a long while to reflect 

 upon their barbarity. When I mention such things, therefore, it is mere- 

 ly to display the character of the animal I am describing in a clear point 

 of view, while at the same time 1 disapprove of such practices. 



" The Spanish Blood-hound is more commonly seen in this country than 

 the African or Spanish varieties, and I have found that to it is the name 

 of Blood-hound almost exclusively applied. The finest specimen of the 

 breed 1 have ever seen was in the possession of Mr Johnston, of Edinburgh, 

 to whom, as I was told, it had been sent from Jamaica by a brother 

 resident there. I was informed that Mr Johnston was offered sixty 

 guineas for this Dog, which, however, he refused. 1 saw this animal, in 

 company with a young South American, who assured me of its being, as 

 far as he could judge, a perfectly fine specimen. I saw also a smaller 

 Dog of the same breed in Edinburgh, in the possession of Mr Charles 

 MacKnight, son of the late Dr MacKnight of that city. At that time 

 I did not believe Mr MacKnight's Dog to be thoroughbred, in conse- 

 quence of its diminutive size. I have since, however, seen one in Dublin, 

 the property of Sir Philip Crampton, the Surgeon-General, which is even 

 less than it, and of the purity of whose blood I can hardly entertain a 

 doubt. The Surgeon-General's Dog is of a very light mouse or silvery- 

 grey colour, and appears certainly far better bred than any of her offspring 

 I have ever seen. 1 also saw two of this breed in London ; they had 

 been brought from Barbadoes, and were handsome animals." 



THE WALRUS OR SEA-HORSE A VISITANT IN BRITAIN. 



The Walrus, however familiarly known in the arctic regions as an object 

 of commercial pursuit, has yet rarely been seen alive on the British shores. 

 We are aware only of two instances on record ; one in the Island of Har- 

 ris in the year 1817, and the other in Orkney in 1825. (Nat. Lib. Mam. 

 VII.) To these we now add a third : — " About a fortnight since a strange 

 large animal was observed on the sands of the Severn at Puiton, and, as 

 a man went towards it, it retreated towards the water. This emboldened 

 the pursuer, and he soon approached very near to the animal, upon which 

 it turned round and exhibited a countenance of such apparently extraor- 

 dinary ferocity and disposition to do battle, that the man was glad in his 

 turn to take to flight with pretty considerable speed. He then procured 

 a large duck gun with a man to accompany him, and to lend his shoulder 

 to support the gun while he took aim. and by this means the strange 

 visitant was very soon dispatched. On examination it turned out to be 

 a Walrus or Morse, a well known animal of the Seal tribe in the Polar 

 Seas, but which very seldom, we believe, is seen in these latitudes. It 

 was quite young, as it measured only about seven or eight feet in length, 

 while the average length ot a full grown Walrus is from twelve to sixteen 

 feet, and some have even measured twenty feet. After its death, it was, 

 we understand, conveyed to Berkeley Castle, where its tusks, &c. will 

 probably be added to the other trophies of the chase which are preserved 

 in that ancient baronial fortress." — Gloucester Journal. 



We cannot but express our regret at the inhospitable reception bestowed 

 upon this young and confiding stranger on the banks of the Severn. The 

 pursuer was here exposed to no kind of danger : and the capture of the 

 poor Morse would have been an easy task, and kind treatment would 

 have been appreciated, not to say repaid. Any of our Zoological Gardens 

 would have regarded the animal as an invaluable prize, and the owner 

 might, had he chosen, been in this way richly rewarded. 



Bearing on this point, we take the liberty of extracting the following 

 sentences from the last volume of one of our most popular works on Na- 

 tural History, (Nat. Lib., by Sir William Jardine, Bart.)—" Considering 

 the intelligence and amiability that are thus displayed by the Walrus, we 

 are not greatly surprised to learn that it can be domesticated. The in- 

 stances we have met with are not numerous, yet we cannot withhold our 

 credence to the statement which De Laet quotes from Edward Worst, 

 who mentions that he saw one of these animals alive in England, which 

 was three months old, and which had been brought from Nova Zembla. 

 Every day it was put into water for a short time ; but always seemed 

 happy to return to dry ground. It was about the size of a calf, and could 

 open and shut its nostrils at pleasure. It grunted like a wild Boar, and 

 sometimes cried with a strong deep voice. It was fed with wild oats or 



