22 DOMESTICATED DOGS. 
square mass, which has been compared to a beam, supported on 
sides very slightly rounded outwardly, or nearly flat like the bream. 
These two comparisons with other objects in nature are more correct 
than those to which J have already alluded, because the old- 
fashioned beam-like back, now very seldom seen, is really almost 
as if cut out of wood, so square and straight are the edges. With- 
out doubt this beam-like back gives enormous strength, and when 
coursing was generally carried on in enclosed districts with high 
hedges, such a back was required for the enormous jumps which 
were often required to be cleared. Now-a-days, however, even 
when a fence does intervene, it is so low as almost to be taken in 
the dog’s stride; and if the back is strong enough to give and 
maintain high speed on the flat, all the muscles beyond the amount 
necessary for that strength is so much dead weight, while experi- 
ence tells the courser that the extra bulk interferes with rather 
than encourages great pace. With the solitary exception of 
“The Czar,” son of “Foremost,” and of a daughter of his owned 
by myself, I never saw great speed combined with a really beam- 
like back, but the combination in them was so marked as to show 
that the two may co-exist. Still the above cases must be regarded 
as exceptional, and the courser should in preference select a moder- 
ately wide and beam-like back, in which the muscles of the loin 
are strongly attached to the ribs above the shoulders, showing a 
prominent edge at the junction with the side. A very slight arch 
in the loin is, I think, to be desired, rather than a perfectly straight 
back, which again causes a departure from the type of the beam. 
As to the side, no comparison can be more true than that with the 
bream, which exactly resembles the amount of convexity required. 
The back ribs are only wanted to be deep for constitutional reasons, 
and regardless of locomotive purposes, for they are always deep 
enough for the attachment of muscles. It is, however, found by 
experience that a dog of any kind—and indeed a horse also— with 
short back ribs is almost always delicate in constitution, and 
hence deep back ribs are demanded in both of these animals, and 
with excellent reason. 
The hind-quarters consist of the upper or true thigh, the lower 
thigh, connected together by the stifle-joint, the mass of muscle 
known as the quarter or buttock, the hock-joint, and the leg. 
