26 DOMESTICATED DOGS. 



the straight line of the arm is the desirable formation of the 

 pastern, in my judgment. 



The loin, side, and bach ribs consist of the bony 'frame com- 

 pounded of the vertebrae and the vertebral ends of the ribs, together 

 with the muscles attached to them, constituting a more or less 

 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 I 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. 

 Without 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 experience 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 moderately 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 depar- 



