As a whole their lot seems to be the worst, if it is cast among savage or imperfectly-civilized nations. When Lawson was among the North-American Indians, he was present at a great feast where was "store of loblolly and other medleys, made of Indian grain, stewed peaches, bear venison, &c. ;" when all the viands were brought in "the first figure began with kicking out all the dogs, which are seemingly wolves made tame with starving and beating; they being the worst dog masters in the world;-so that it is an infallible cure for sore eyes ever to see an Indian's dog fat." The tribe who exercised this summary calcitration on the poor dogs, that had most probably contributed not a little to the venison part of the entertainment, rejoiced in the appropriate name of the Whacksaws or Waxsaws; and yet these same Indians delighted in feeding up their horses till they were comparable to nothing more aptly than an English prize-ox. Though much advanced in the scale of civilization, the Javanese, according to Dr. Horsfield, seem to be little better dog-masters than the Waxsaws; for he remarks that the poor brutes, we mean the dogs, are not cared for, and are ill-treated, so that their famishing condition is disgusting to Europeans. This is the more extraordinary as many of these dogs pursue the Java deer called the Kidang with great ardour and courage. They are led in slips and loosed when they come upon the scent. Away they go, and the hunters, who follow more quietly, generally find the deer at bay and the hounds going gallantly into him. This is no joke, for the male Kidang makes a capital fight with his tusks, wounding his assailants severely, often fatally. "The sportsmen," says the Doctor, whose book is full of interesting passages, "uniformly are provided with remedies and applications, and by a simple suture attempt to unite those wounds which are not immediately fatal. In this operation they frequently succeed and preserve their most valuable dogs." But even this small care appears to be the exception to the rule. The natives of Java, like other Mahommedans, entertain prejudices unfavourable to dogs; they rarely treat them with kindness, or allow them to approach their persons; and it is only in extraordinary instances, or when they contribute to their amusement, that they feed or care for them." To be sure, as a set-off, they rarely show attachment to their masters, and no wonder; even Bill Sykes's dog could not carry his otherwise unqualified obedience to the length of getting over his very particular objection to being drowned. 66 On the other hand, the good dog-master considers his fourfooted follower as his friend, his other self, his doppelgänger, so that "Love me, love my dog," has passed into a proverb which has sometimes led to deadly results; we need only allude to the fatal duel between Colonel Montgomery and Captain Macnamara. Nor can it be wondered at that a man should feel strongly for the faithful animal that distinguishes him from all others, an animal that may be a burr but is hardly ever a bore. Now and then, indeed, an ill-bred cur will, like Launce's Crab, thrust himself into the company of three or four gentlemanlike dogs; but your Biped Bore constantly and unrelentingly intrudes into a happy knot of mortals, not of his quality, who are shaking off the cares of life with a little joyous converse, till he has succeeded in reducing the gaiety that was flashing so brilliantly to a heap of ashes, and the merry tongues to a dead silence. Or he finds out when you are sick, and by an incomprehensible power possessed only by the typical Bore or Augur—not soothsayer-drills himself through all the doors barricaded against him, and, having perforated to your sanctum, preys upon you in your own arm-chair, giving you all the while, under colour of much pity, broad hints that you are" booked," and wimbling deeper and deeper still, till he has shattered the remains of your nerves to atoms; when, having absolutely devoured you in your shell, he leaves you, a complete caput mortuum, to go and finish with some other victim -the cannibal! Why, why, is there not in our great clubs a power of reprobation as well as of election? Surely it would not be too much for twelve hundred men to have the power of excluding eight annually :—a power, by the way, which would be seldom exerted, for the very knowledge of its existence would have its effect, though it might be necessary now and then to eject some incorrigible pachydermatous bore pour encourager les autres. There is already a law prohibiting the entrance of our friends the dogs into those masculine establishments, a law which one is, at first, disposed to regard as harsh; but the reflection that most of the members of a club show no backwardness in availing themselves of its privileges, reconciles the mind to the inhospitable practice of making the worthy beasts sit in the porch, anxiously watching for the egress of their masters. Think of the assemblage of the doggies belonging to a thousand or twelve hundred masters, and the duels the principals, to be sure, nowadays, never hit each other-which would spring out of the collision. Besides, they are not admitted at court, according to the old French quatrain— for which of their qualities we may not guess: "A la court les gros courtisans Les petits qui sont moins puissants But if they are not allowed to grace our assemblies within doors, there is no lack of them when men are gathered together under the canopy of heaven. At a fair, at a fight, at the most solemn spectacles; wherever, in short, there is a crowd, there are dogs to be seen, as a matter of course, apparently discussing the matter in hand, or inquiring of each new comer whether he had any thing to do with the embassy, and getting into little coteries and fights of their own; for, on these occasions, especially if there be a lady in the case, jealousies and suspicions do abound. When the citizens feasted the allied sovereigns, we were snugly placed, at an early hour, at the window of a most worthy trader in the precious metals, upon Ludgate-hill; one who had been prime warden of the worshipful company, and had two gowns, and every thing handsome about him. His hospitable house was well filled with honest men and bonnie lassies, but we who had not been long in the small village, were constantly drawn from the well-spread table, and the bright eyes that surrounded it, to the window aforesaid, by the note of preparation. In the street were the heaps of gravel intended for smoothing the path of the Regent and the crowned heads. Workmen were employed in levelling these heaps, which the dogs, already collected in considerable numbers, evidently considered as pitched exclusively for their accommodation. The thickening crowd were in their holyday suits, every thing was bright and gay, the dogs were frisky beyond expression, and the gravel heaps produced the most social feelings among the assembled quadrupeds. By and by the gravel was spread-the dogs, that had been chasing each other's tails from an early hour, began to be a little tired, but were still in good spirits. The troops now lined the streets, and at length there seemed to be a disposition on the part of the dogs to consider that they had had enough of the fête. Every now and then, a canine sceptic, who began to think that matters were taking an unpleasant turn, would go to the sides of the street and try to make his way through the living wall that bounded the carriage-way. In nine cases out of ten he was kicked back by the soldiers, and if some particularly enterprising individual succeeded in passing them, a greater obstacle remained behind; for there was no possibility of getting through the conglomeration on the foot pavements: trampled upon by the crowd, and butt-ended by the soldiers, he was kicked back with curses into the arena, erst the scene of his gaiety, yelping and howling, and then and there immediately pitched into by his now hungry, peevish companions. Well, the day wore on, the dogs lay down ;-the usual cries, "They are coming!" brought every body from the creaturecomforts to the windows, and the usual disappointments sent them back to their more substantial enjoyments. At last, the pealing of bells and firing announced the advent of the kings of the earth. Shouts were heard booming from the distance the heads in the crammed windows were all craning westward,-the procession was now coming in earnest. It was headed by a large body of distressed dogs, the phalanx increasing as it advanced. Worn out, kicked to death's door, and scarcely able to crawl, the miserable curs marched in solemn silence, with head depressed, and slinking tail, to which here and there might be seen appended the badge of the order of the tin canister or kettle. By the side there was no escape-they could not retreat, and so the dejected wretches marshalled the way, unwillingly and slow, till our country's honour, and that of Europe, were roofed in the Guildhall of the city of London. Seeing these familiars, as we do, everywhere around us, and the infinite variety of form and colour exhibited among them, we are at once led to the inquiry whence they sprang,-what was the stock from which the canine family was derived? Your good cynogenealogist will trace out for you the pedigree of any particular race, and will be eloquent on King Charles's breed of spaniels, and the delicate Blenheim breed, nor will he not descant as learnedly as any historian of the turf on the Czarina, Snowball, or Claret blood, to him who loves" The Couples ;" but, if you ask the said genealogist who was the common ancestor, you may "pause for a reply." Inquire among the zoologists, and one will tell you that the jackal, with his unearthly cry and ghoul-like habits, that robber of the Asiatic and African grave, is the impure source of all that is quadrupedly good and amiable. Another, with more show of reason, will point to the gaunt wolf, "With his long gallop that can tire The hound's deep hate and hunter's fire;" but it will be difficult to find one who will give you any authority for the existence of a primitive race of dogs in the common acceptation of the term. Little osteological difference is to be detected in the dog, wolf, fox, or jackal: none, indeed, on which generic distinction can be founded with any degree of safety, and therefore, no satisfactory evidence is forthcoming from the fossil canine animals, such as the canis spelæus of the Bone-caverns, the canis giganteus of Avary, and the Agnotherium, an animal of the dog-kind, as large as a lion, discovered at Epplesheim, by Professor Kaup. There is now ground for believing that Sir Roderick Murchison's fossil quadruped found at Eningen, was not a true fox.* The dog, the wolf, the jackal, and the fox, are all collected under the generic appellation, canis, by Linnæus, Cuvier, and other great * See Professor Owen's interesting paper, "On the extinct Fossil Viverrine Fox of Œningen, showing its specific characters and affinities to the Family Viverrida." Proceedings of the Geological Society, 1846, p. 55. zoologists; but the principal character assigned by the first of these philosophers to the domesticated dog, or canis familiaris, is" cauda (sinistrorsum) recurvata," "tail curled towards the left." There are, indeed, well-marked external differences between the four animals just mentioned, as every one knows who has looked with any attention at them; and other distinctions will be detected on a closer examination. In the dogs properly so called, the pupil of the eye is round; this modification of the organization exists in the wolf and the jackal, and for this reason, the African Fennec or Zerda is now associated with the true dogs; but the pupil of the eye in the foxes, whose habits are more nocturnal, is vertical. The wild dogs, as they are called-and we do not mean to say that they are improperly named-in whatever quarter of the world they are found, do not, in our opinion, help the question; indeed they have embarrassed it. Now there is evidence of the existence of the domesticated dog from the earliest times, and we see no sound reason for concluding that these wild races, some of which are well known to our Indian friends, and one of which has been named somewhat boldly, canis primævus, do not owe their origin to dogs which have been once under the subjection of man, partially at least, and have from circumstances taken to roving habits and a natural state, like the wild horses of America. In pursuing this inquiry, it becomes of importance to ascertain in which of the supposed stocks we can trace the seeds of that affection for man,-yes, affection is the word,-which so highly distinguishes the dog. The jackal is altogether unamiable, and we know from the experiments of John Hunter, that though it will breed with the dog, the period of gestation is fifty-nine days. If the fox is looked to- we say nothing of an appeal to another of the senses-there does not appear any very inviting symptom to encourage us to make a fireside companion of him, "Who ne'er so tame, so cherish'd and lock'd up, Now, your wolf, truculent though he be, is capable of a most cordial attachment to man. We have seen one follow his master about with all the manners of a faithful dog, and doing his bidding as obediently. In the instance recorded by M. F. Cuvier, the wolf was brought up and treated like a young dog: he became familiar with everybody whom he saw frequently, but he distinguished his master, was restless in his absence, and happy in his presence, acting almost precisely as a favourite dog would act. But his master was under the necessity of being absent for a time, and the unfortunate wolf was presented to the Ménagerie du Roi -where he was incarcerated in a den-he who had "affections, |