In the islands of the Pacific Ocean the dogs are
bred up on vegetables, and would not eat flesh when offered them
by our circumnavigators.
We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, upright
fox-like ears; and that hanging ears, which are esteemed so
graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and cultivation. Thus, in
the Travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to China, the dogs
which draw the Tartars on snow-sledges near the river Oby are
engraved with prick-ears, like those from Canton. The
Kamschatdales also train the same sort of sharp-eared peak-nosed
dogs to draw their sledges; as may be seen in an elegant print
engraved for Captain Cook's last voyage round the world.
Now we are upon the subject of dogs it may not be impertinent to
add, that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, though they hunt
partridges and pheasants as it were by instinct, and with much
delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones when offered
as food; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, though he is
remarkable for ending that sort of game.
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