THE ST. BERNARD. 



BY F. E. LAMB. 



>HE real origin of this grand dog is shrouded in mys- 

 tery, for although we find records of his existence 

 in Switzerland during the tenth century, there 

 appears to be no authentic record concerning its origin or 

 early development. It is evident that the monks at Hos- 

 pice and Simplon had a breed of dogs which was named 

 after the good old monk, St. Bernard de Menthon, who 

 educated a few large dogs in his possession to traverse 

 the mountains and aid or rescue weary and travel-worn 

 pedestrians who had attempted to cross the snow-capped 

 cliffs. 



These dogs were trained to go out in pairs, and when 

 they succeeded in finding a belated traveler, one would 

 hasten back to the monastery to alarm its inmates, while 

 the other would endeavor to arouse the almost dying man 

 with its barking and other demonstrations of distress. 



A writer in the Fancier' s Gazette says: 



The Alpine (or St. Bernard) dog was not manufactured at the monastery, 

 neither was the variety originated some centuries after the death of St. Bernard 

 de Menthon himself. On the contrary, it is a well-known fact that the breed 

 was in existence in a crude and -uncultivated state, I admit, but still in 

 existence long before the founding of the Hospice at St. Bernard, as there 

 are specimens of the old type to be found in some parts of Switzerland to 

 this very day a breed of dogs indigenous to the soil, but which has been, 

 with judicious and careful breeding, so improved that in place of the rugged 

 mountain dogs of past ages we have the fixed and admirably defined type of 

 the modern St. Bernard. 



Yero Shaw, in his valuable work ' ' The Book of the 

 Dog," quotes portions of a letter from M. Schumacher 

 regarding the origin and early history of the St. Bernard, 

 which I take the liberty of reproducing here, meantime 



(549) 



