CAPE HUNTING DOG OR WILD HONDE 
retire. Instances are on record of them attacking 
and devouring natives, as do their cousins the 
wolves in Russia at the present day. Europeans 
on foot have frequently been threatened by them, 
but they seem to have a great dread of man on 
horseback. The reason, no doubt, is that horses 
are associated with men carrying firearms, for 
hunters seldom venture out into the wilds on foot. 
An unarmed man on foot would stand no chance 
against one of these large and powerful wild dogs, 
if it thought fit to attack him. 
When taken captive as puppies, wild dogs can 
be tamed very effectually, but the evil character 
of their kind sometimes asserts itself. It is stated 
that when crossed with domestic dogs the offspring 
is a mongrel of bad character. 
The Cape Hunting Dog is an animal which has 
served its purpose in the economy of Nature. 
Wherever man settles down to take possession of 
the land, this dog is one of the creatures which he 
must spare no effort to destroy, for, until they are 
all exterminated, he cannot live in peace. It is 
an animal doomed to extinction, and rightly so, 
for from a human point of view it is without a 
redeeming trait of character. 
Its work before the advent of man was a good 
and useful one. Man has replaced it, and the two 
cannot live in proximity. 
In shape the Wilde Honde is wolf-like. ‘The hair 
is short and in many it is scanty. The general 
yOL. Il 129 9 
