60 Idle Days in Patagonza. 
you might be able to add a few ornamental subjects, 
such as giving his paw, and keeping guard over a 
coat or stick left in his charge. He is a generalized 
beast, grandson to the jackal, and first cousin to the 
cur of Hurope and tke Eastern pariah. To this 
primitive, or only slightly-improved type of dog, the 
colley perhaps comes nearest of all the breeds we 
value; and when he is thrown back on nature he is 
“all there,” and not hindered as the pointer and 
other varieties are by more deeply-rooted special in- 
stincts. At all events, this individual took very 
kindly to the rude life and work of his new com- 
panions, and by means of his hardihood and inex- 
haustible energy, became their leader and superior, 
especially in hunting. Above anything he loved 
to chase a fox; and when in the course of a ride in 
the valley one was started, he invariably threw all 
the native dogs out and caught and killed it himself. 
If these dogs had all together taken to a feral life, I 
do not think the colley would have been worse off 
than the others. 
It was very different with the greyhounds. There 
were four, all of pure breed; and as they were never 
taken out to hunt, and could not, like the colley, 
take their share in the ordinary work of the establish- 
ment, they were absolutely useless, and certainly not 
ornamental. When I first noticed them they were 
pitiable objects, thin as skeletons, so lame that they 
could scarcely walk, and wounded and scratched 
all over with thorns. I was told that they had been 
out hunting on their own account in the thorny 
