216 WHENCE CAME THE LONG-HAIRED DOGS? 



fabrics before (as far as I know) they had inter- 

 course with any civilised races. The art of 

 dyeing the hair, and materials used with it, of 

 different colours was also known to them, thus 

 producing a regularly designed coloured pattern. 

 Since the Hudson's Bay Company introduced 

 blankets, the native manufacture has entirely 

 ceased, and the dog from which the hair was 

 procured is extinct or very nearly. Whence came 

 this singular white long-haired dog, possessed by 

 only a few tribes inhabiting the coast, scrupu- 

 lously kept on islands to prevent their extending 

 or escaping, and differing in every specific detail 

 from all the other breeds of dogs belonging to 

 either coast or inland Indians? There are two 

 ways, it would appear, in which it is possible for it 

 to have been imported. The more probable sup- 

 position is that it came from Japan; and I am 

 informed by a friend who has been there, that the 

 Japanese have a small long-haired dog, usually 

 white, and from description very analogous to the 

 dog that was shorn by the Indians of the coast 

 and of Vancouver Island. 



There can be little doubt that the Japanese 

 visited the coast of North Western America long 

 prior to any other people; whether accidentally 

 wrecked, or designedly landing to trade with the 



