THE DOG 37 



best types of this breed which I have ever seen are to be 

 found among the dogs which are kept to guard the quarries 

 of Solenhofen, in Bavaria, whence come all the fine litho- 

 graphic stones which are so extensively used in printing. 

 These quarries are scattered over several square miles of 

 untilled country, and the separate pits are to be numbered 

 by the score. As much valuable stone is necessarily left 

 over night in the quarries, their care is confined to packs of 

 watch-dogs which are turned loose at night and appear as 

 if by instinct to spend the hours of darkness in prowling 

 over the territory. Such is their size and ferocity that it 

 takes a sturdy beggar to face them. I remember inadvert- 

 ently disturbing one of these brutes from sleep, in the 

 strong cage where he was confined, and I have never beheld 

 such a picture of blind fury as he exhibited. I had not 

 come within twenty feet of him, and was merely moving 

 past his place of confinement ; yet he sprang to the grating 

 and strove with his teeth to break his way through the bars. 

 I thought the animal must be mad, but his keeper assured 

 me that such was his ordinary state of mind and that the 

 humor was common to all the breed ; even the masters dwelt 

 in fear of them. Ordinarily the only exhibitions of the 

 innate ferocity of our dogs are to be seen in their combats 

 with each other, when for a time the creatures return to their 

 primitive state of mind. Even these occasional exhibitions 

 of fury are not found among all breeds of dogs, and among 

 many individuals even of the combative strains of blood the 

 motive of battle appears to have quite passed away. 



In antithesis to the old Ishmaelitic humor of our prim- 

 itive dogs, man has developed a singular, sympathetic, and 

 kindly motive in these creatures. From the point of view of 



