steam-tug in a heavy sea. He carries his head low to follow the scent of the trail (except when it is warm enough for him to take it breast-high) and his tail up as a signal to the rest of the pack, just the exact reverse of the wolf. But every inch of him, from the end of his nose to the tip of his tail, is working for dear life. You can see every one of the plunges and props, of which we found a dog's gallop was made up. It is not a graceful gait,

THE GREYHOUND FULLERTON.

Thrice winner of the Waterloo Cup, the most valuable
of all coursing prizes. (Wesley Mills.)

but it "arrives," as our French cousins say, and will wear out and run down the wolf, the panther, the deer, the antelope, the hare, all of which are capable of nearly double his speed for the first three to five miles.

But the champion galloper of the dog-world is the greyhound. He is scarcely a dog, but a racing machine. His legs, his feet, his tail, even for some unknown reason, his nose, are long, slender and

graceful as a deer's. At first sight he is all legs and chest, his head simply his neck whittled down to a long point, his waist, or as fanciers call it his "coupling," like a wasp's.

But put your hand on the small of his back and you'll find that his loins are one superb, rounded, Atlantic-cable of steely muscle and look small only by comparison with the splendid depth of his chest. His hind-quarters, instead of being square, curve gracefully round in one continuous sweep from his arched back right down to his hocks. In fact all of him behind the last rib forms one great continuous "C-spring," which splits into legs in the lower half. To see him run is poem, for when that long back-rump-legs spring curls up so that his hind feet are just under his nose and then suddenly straightens itself, as it does every stride of his gallop, the leap he takes is something tremendous. Scarcely do his fore feet touch the ground when forward come his hind spring-levers again for another splendid plunge, so that every inch of his body from his ears back seems to be driving him forward.

His gallop is not so graceful and gliding as that of the wolf, but it is nearly twice as fast, and a good greyhound will overhaul a coyote hand-over-hand, if he can only keep him in sight. There is his weak point, however, he goes at such a pace that he could not possibly catch the scent, even if he had a nose like the hound, so that when he reaches the top of the ridge over which the wolf or antelope has disappeared, he has no idea which way it has gone unless it is in plain sight. You will see him leap madly up into the air four or five feet and stare wildly around in every direction, and if he can catch so much as a glimpse of Brer Wolf off he goes like a shot, but if he can't, that is the last of his chance, for as a matter of fact he has hardly any scent at all and if he had he's too lazy to use it.

And to make it more provoking, it will often happen that you from your seat on horseback can see the game more plainly, but you can't show it to him and he won't stir a step till he sees it, no matter how you wave and shout at him. If you can call him to you and your horse is reasonably steady-which does not often happen on the plains though-you may get him by the collar and hoist him up on to the saddle before you and perhaps succeed in giving him a glimpse of the game, and if so he'll drop off and go like a shot in that direction. But it is only one dog in ten you can do it with, even if your broncho has no objection.

A greyhound has only one sense, his sight, and unless he can bring that to bear he is useless as a saw-horse and ten times as

provoking. You can send a setter or pointer or spaniel half a mile in any direction, simply by a wave of your hand, but your greyhound like Kipling's "Heathen in his Blindness" "won't obey no orders except they is his own," and the more you expostulate with him, the more likely he is to turn sullen and either lie down or start off in precisely the wrong direction, with an expression of utter boredom.

I once galloped at the top of my pony's speed for more than a mile close behind a wolf, shouting frantically to my silly greyhound, who was amusing himself about a quarter of a mile away and who when he did at last come up, just as the wolf was disappearing over the brow of the next ridge, instead of dashing forward, fell calmly behind my pony's heels, just as if I usually exhorted him to follow we in that tone of voice, and with such unprintable adjectives.

But that is the greyhound way, you never can depend upon them, for even if they see the hare or wolf plainly,it is even chances whether they start or not. If they do not like the lay of the ground or the color of the hare or the length of his ears, or the stage of the moon is not quite to their taste, they will calmly look the other way and refuse to budge, which is peculiarly soothing to your temper. They are as fanciful as fine ladies at a lace counter, and I have seen the fastest dog in our pack get "miffed" and for no apparent or imaginable reason whatever, flatly refuse three jack-rabbits in succession, two "jumped" within fifty yards, and one chased by another dog literally almost under his nose, and then dash after the fourth bunny like a rocket and catch it within two hundred yards.

Indeed you never think of going out with less than three dogs, so as to be sure of having one start, whenever a hare is put up.

I have given quite a full sketch of the greyhound, because he is an example of a rule that is very common among animals. And that is, that to do one thing extremely well usually means doing certain other things very poorly. The pure greyhound can do one thing superbly, run by sight, but that is about all he is fit for. His name, by the way, means this and has nothing to do with his color which is commonly black, mouse-color, or buff, almost never grey. It was originally "gaze-hound" and has gradually become corrupted to "greyhound," as easier to say, but in some of the old ballads. and hunting-songs you will find it spelled "gaze."

By depending on his eyes and speed he has almost lost both scent and sense, so that he can in some cases scarcely recognize his

master by smell, and will lounge after any loafer, who will pat and feed him a little, so that he's never certain to be at home when you want him. A run of three miles at speed is about all he is good for. He has poor intelligence and worse manners, if you try to teach him any thing it is labor lost, and if you take from him the hare he has killed before he can eat it, he is quite likely to fly at your throat.

In short, as I said before, he is a racing machine, instead of a dog, and in spite of his beauty and speed, one of the most disappointing creatures on four legs to try to make a friend and companion of. Notice I say "pure-bred," for there are plenty of halfand theree-quarter-bred dogs which are both intelligent and devoted.

My friend Pedro, who could trip up a wolf so cleverly, had one-fourth of bull-dog in him, and in fact on the plains for big game we find it absolutely necessary to use only greyhounds with some bull-dog blood in them, to give them the stamina, endurance and pluck needed. Even though your thoroughbred is faster, he is so easily discouraged that a three-quarter-bred dog, with less speed but more "stick-to-itiveness" will catch many more hares in a week, to say nothing of real heart-straining gallops after antelope or coyote.

For the matter of that, a drop of bull-dog blood improves almost any dog, not only in courage and endurance, but also in intelligence, and some strains of greyhounds are regularly crossed with it every four or five generations.

CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS.

TH

BY THE EDITOR.

Illustrated by Chinese Artists.

HE more our civilization expands, and with it trade and commerce, the closer will be our relations with Eastern Asia, and it is to our own advantage in our dealings with foreign people, to understand their habits and to be as familiar as possible with their main motives in life. Having long searched in vain for a good source of information concerning life in China, we have at last discovered a book, which was published in Japan by a Japanese publisher assisted by Chinese artists, and entitled, An Exposition of Chinese Life and Customs under the Chin Emperors (the present Manchu dynasty). The book bears the title Ching Hsü Chi Wen,1 or, as the Japanese pronounce it, Shin-zok-kih-bun, and is published in Tokyo.

The book before us is fully illustrated and gives as good an insight into Chinese life as can be had in any special work. The illustrations are simply outline drawings after the fashion of Chinese art, but in this way, too, they become characteristic of the people whom they are intended to portray.

The entire work consists of six fascicles, and we will select from it the illustrations that are of special interest.

ANNUAL FESTIVALS.

The Chinese calendar is lunar, but its beginning is determined by the sun. New Year falls on the first new moon after the sun has entered Aquarius, which will never happen before Jaunary 21, nor after February 19. The months are strictly regulated by the moon. The first of every month is new moon and the fifteenth is full moon.

「清俗聞