CHAPTER LVI 



The Chow 



XACTLY where the idea originated that the chow dog of 

 China is the common mongrel of that country is another 

 " lost in the mists of antiquity. " Mongrels are common 

 enough in that country, but the chow has long been an estab- 

 lished breed and one well known to those acquainted with 

 the Orient. No dog of such marked peculiarities can be a mongrel or cur 

 dog and it was the same a hundred years ago as now. In Daniel's "Rural 

 Sports" (1801) there is this information: 



" Mr. White describes a Chinese dog and bitch, brought from Canton, 

 where they are fattened on rice meal and other farinaceous food for the 

 table, as being about the size of a spaniel; colour pale yellow, with coarse 

 bristling hairs on their backs, sharp erect ears and peaked fox-like heads. 

 Their hind legs with no bend at the hock or ham, and so unusually straight 

 as to cause an awkward gait in trotting. When in motion their tails are 

 curved high over their backs, and have naturally a bare place on the outside, 

 from the tip half way down. Their eyes are jet black, small and piercing; 

 inside of their lips and mouths of the same colour, and their tongues blue. 

 These dogs did not relish flesh, yet were taken on board so early from the 

 dam that they could not acquire a preference for any particular kind of food, 

 from her instruction or habits." 



There is far too little foundation upon which to hazard speculation as to 

 the origin of this dog, with his dark coloured mouth and other peculiarities 

 and there is exceedingly little history about the breed either in England or 

 America. Specimens have been common enough in England, with its inti- 

 mate intercourse with China, for many years but it was not until about ten 

 years ago that the breed emerged from the "Foreign class" at English dog 

 shows and received an individual classification and recognition in the stud 

 book. With the establishment of a club to look after the interests of the 

 breed in England it at once began to flourish and improvement set in so 



that we get the best Chows from that country in place of from the land of 



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