480 THE AMERICAN BOOK OF THE DOG. 



the show bench may come sometime when some circum- 

 stance or other has brought them to the notice of the 

 public, and they will emerge from the obscurity of their 

 native dales. 



The Dandie Dinmont would have been as little known, 

 perhaps such a breed would not have been in existence at 

 all to-day, if their praises and those of old James Davidson, 

 of Hindlee, the stout old Liddesdale yeoman, had not been 

 sung by Sir Walter Scott in his "Gruy Mannering." The 

 Skye, though a native of the island whose name he bears, 

 and of the adjacent coast, like his cousin the Dandie Din- 

 mont, who originally came from the borders of Liddesdale 

 and the Teviot district, has left his native place, and has 

 been for so long a time established generally all through 

 the Highlands that comparatively few come from or ?ire to 

 be found now at the original home of the breed. 



There is a story current to the effect that the strain of 

 Terriers on the island of Skye, and the adjacent mainland, 

 got that silky texture of coat which distinguishes them 

 from the other strains from some mythical white Spanish 

 dogs that came ashore from the wreck of some ships of the 

 Spanisli armada that were lost among the Hebrides. 

 Whether this be true or not, we find the Skye Terrier 

 possessed of a longer and comparatively more silky coat 

 than the other strains. The breed is pretty generally 

 divided into two classes, the drop-eared and the prick-eared, 

 about the only difference between them being the carriage 

 of the ears and tail, and in the drop -eared variety a smaller 

 head, a longer body, and a somewhat longer and softer coat. 



They are practically the same, however, this difference in 

 type being brought about merely by selection, owing to the 

 preference of some for the longer, silkier coated dog for a 

 pet, over his more workmanlike cousin. For the purposes 

 of this article I will treat them as one and the same, having 

 at the outset pointed out what differences do exist between 

 them. 



The Skye Terrier is a long, low, well-built, wiry little 

 fellow, with a good hard jacket, an intelligent, alert ex- 



