ALLEN: DOGS OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 451 



like those of one of the coyotes. Hamilton Smith (1840, p. 156) 

 refers to the same dog as the " Techichi of Mexico, or the Carrier-dog 

 of the Indians," and gives a figure (PI. 4) of the only example he had 

 seen, a tawny dog of normal proportions and with cropped ears. He 

 confuses it however, with Richardson's "Carrier-Indian" or Short- 

 legged Dog and further complicates his account by supposing it the 

 same as the Mexican Techichi. 



James Teit (1909) writing of the Thompson Indians of the upper 

 Fraser River, British Columbia, also remarks on the general resem- 

 blance of their dogs to coyotes, but adds that through intercrossing 

 with dogs imported b;\' the whites, the breed has become totally 

 extinct. They were good hunters, though poor watch-dogs, and the 

 l)est ones for deer hunting were highly prized. Such dogs generally 

 ran the deer to water, often bringing it to bay in some creek, and keep- 

 ing it there till the Indian came up and dispatched it. 



It is regrettable that more thorough comparison of the teeth of these 

 dogs could not be made to test any supposed resemblance or relation- 

 ship to coyotes. As Gidley (1913) has pointed out, the fourth lower 

 premolar of the latter has normally two secondary cusps and a cingu- 

 lum, that of the dog normally but one secondary cusp, a ready means 

 of distinction in addition to other relative characters. It should be 

 added that in numerous fragments I have examined from the south- 

 west, there is no evidence of coyote influence. 



Referable to this same breed are perhaps the larger dogs mentioned 

 by Suckley (Suckley and Gibbs, 1860, p. 112) as kept by the Indians 

 " about the Dalles of the Columbia," Oregon. These he describes as 

 about the size of a foxhound, but much more slender, in color yellow 

 or brindled. 



A similar type of dog seems to have been kept by the Indians of 

 California. At all events, a series of skulls from mounds on the south- 

 ern coastal islands are hardly to be distinguished from New Mexican 

 skulls. A skull found in association with that of an Indian, washed 

 out after a freshet, from a bank at the junction of the Tuolumne and 

 San Joaquin Rivers, California, is of the same medium-sized type, 

 rather heavy of bone, slender of muzzle, and with feel)le sagittal crest, 

 mainly on the occiput. 



Skeletal Measurements. — A cranium discovered in the course of 

 excavations by Dr. A. V. Kidder at Pecos, New Mexico, may be 

 attributed to this dog. It is nearly identical in size and proportions 

 with several of the skulls from southern California from mounds on 

 the island of San Nicolas, kindly loaned me by the Archaeological 



