572 THE AMERICAN BOOK OF THE DOG. 



For my part, I do not believe that the Mastiff as we 

 have him to-day existed in anything but a very rough and 

 crude form a few hundred years since. England evidently 

 had, in a very early day, a dog used for somewhat the same 

 purposes as the Mastiff is now used. This was "the 

 broad-mouthed dog of Britain," but whether it was the 

 Mastiff or the Bulldog is, to my mind, pure conjecture. 

 Whether the Mastiff is an offshoot of the Bulldog, bred in 

 a different direction for size, etc., or vice versa, or whether 

 both sprung from the same root and have been differently 

 developed, is merely guess-work, and I never had the pa- 

 tience to thoroughly read such tiresome gropings in the 



been from thirty to thirty-four inches at shoulder, and at times even thirty-six 

 inches, perhaps." 



Mr. Wynn traces the history of these dogs into Greece, Alexander the 

 Great having introduced them there in 326 B. C., and notes Marco Polo's men- 

 tion (A. D. 1295) of Mastiffs in Central Asia as large as asses. On page 23 the 

 same author writes: "The earliest and most incontestible proofs we possess 

 of the origin of the various races of dogs are the delineations of the animals 

 that existed in the days of early Assyrian, Egyptian, and Grecian sculpture, 

 and among these we may trace dogs of the Mastiff, as well as the Grey- 

 hound and other types, existing before the Christian era. The characteristics 

 are the same to-day as they were when the noble Mastiff delighted the eyes of 

 the Assyrian kings." 



Reverting to page 16 of the same work, we read: " The theory or opinion 

 I hold is that the English Mastiff, from the earliest times, has existed in 

 Britain in its purity, resembling in many respects a vast Bulldog, being the 

 ancestor of that breed such being the true pugnaces, peculiar to Britain and 

 Gaul, mentioned by the historians; and by crossing these with larger breeds, 

 particularly the Asiatic Mastiff (introduced probably by the, Phrenicians) and 

 other large races of the pugnaces, as the white Alan, or war dogs of the 

 Alani, a larger variety of the Mastiff was formed." 



Again, on page 35: " From the preceding it will be seen that dogs of a 

 true Mastiff type have existed from the earliest times, and it has been con- 

 jectured that the Phoenicians introduced the Assyrian or Asiatic Mastiff into 

 Britain." Further on, the same writer states that Pho3nician traders probably 

 bartered specimens of the Asiatic Mastiff to the Britons in exchange for tin, 

 which was in early ages an important article of commerce between the two 

 countries. 



" Idstone " claims that the Mastiff existed in France at an early period; that 

 it was known to the Greeks as Molossus, from Molossis, a part of Epirus, 

 and that it was subsequently distributed from Middle Asia throughout Europe. 

 ED. 



