The Skye Terrier. 341 



whilst they have " almost n'o legs, and a caterpillar body" that is, an 

 excessively lengthy body. Every one of these statements are untrue of 

 the principal winners at our best shows, for, although long in coat, it is 

 hard and coarse in texture, the carriage of the tail is low, and the pro- 

 portions of length of body to height at shoulder practically the same as 

 he and his friends of the " manifesto " lay down as correct that is, the 

 length rather more than three times the height their ideal of perfection 

 being 3& to 1. I have not measured either Mr. Bead's Eoseneath 

 dog Garelock, or Mr. Murray's Otter, but the illustrations* certainly give 

 one the impression that they are each of them very much shorter in 

 length than the written standard put forward by their admirers require, 

 and, having seen Otter in the flesh, that impression of him is strong 

 with me. In appearance, Otter has nothing but his decidedly " varmint" 

 look to recommend him ; he is decidedly ugly, and to ask fanciers of dogs 

 and lovers of the beautiful in these animals to give up the charming Skye 

 terriers, brought to their present perfection by careful and judicious 

 breeding, and take in their place such a dog as Otter, or even Garelock, I 

 can only consider one of those ponderous things known as a "Scotch joke.' ' 

 It is very easy to understand that a hardy rough terrier, with a 

 shortish wire coat, and something of the sort Mr. Murray describes, 

 would be kept for vermin hunting, and, as at one time was the case with 

 other breeds, their quality as workers considered almost entirely, and the 

 beauty of appearance almost ignored, but it has been proved in Skye 

 terriers, as in other breeds, that a beautiful exterior is quite consistent 

 with good working qualities, and has, in fact, been produced without 

 loss of hardihood, pluck, and endurance. That some of the prize Skyes 

 are capital workers, as also some of those bred from prize winners, I can 

 testify from experience of them, and when put to work the excessive 

 length of coat would not be long in the way. To ask us, however, to 

 change the coat of dogs principally kept for their beauty, one of the 

 great charms of the modern Skye, for the short harsh uncultivated one, 

 such as covers Otter, would be equivalent to ask the descendants of 

 Highland gentlemen settled in the south to give up all the advantages of 

 modern civilisation and culture and betake themselves to the garb of a 

 Dunniewassal of the last century ; but all this is giving Mr. Murray the 



* The illustration of Garelock is a fac-simile, by a patent process, of a drawing by 

 Mr. Barron. 



