The Skye Terrier. 343 



him to bay. Many gentlemen in the north of Scotland kept a pack of 

 terriers for otter hunting, and some do so still ; and many at the present 

 day use them for rabbit hunting, at which sport no dog can equal them, 

 as they never get too excited, and are always ready to obey the commands 

 of their master. In close creeping ' whins ' or ' furze ' they will go 

 through the rabbit runs like ferrets, and Mr. Bunny is either obliged to 

 bolt or be killed. They are capable of being trained to retrieve, and it 

 is a very pretty thing to see one of these little dogs carrying a partridge, 

 woodcock, or snipe. They will take to the water like an otter, and 

 give excellent sport when flapper shooting. In fact, in my day I have 

 seen a great many, and used a few of the so-called retrievers ; but give 

 me a well-broken Highland terrier in preference to any retriever I 

 know, and if there is game to be had I should have little fear in losing a 

 wounded bird or quadruped if it kept above ground. 1 shall now give 

 the opinions of a few gentlemen well qualified, from a long experience of 

 the dog under discussion, to describe what a Skye or Highland terrier 

 should be, at the same time readers will observe that these ' opinions ' 

 were kindly furnished me in respect to a description of the animal I had 

 previously sent them being anxious to have the advice of the very best 

 living authorities on the breed. 



" I shall now quote a letter from Mr. M'Intyre, head keeper, Armadale, 

 Isle of Skye : ' Sir, With reference to your letter of the 31st of October, I 

 beg to state that I am entirely of the opinion stated in your description, 

 except that in former days we thought more of the bandied legs than the 

 straight. As to the dog given to Argyle by the late lord, he was of what 

 was known in Skye as the ' Mogstad ' breed of terriers, as all his lord- 

 ship' s were got from the late Mr. M'Donald, of Mogstad. As to the time 

 the long-haired dogs became common in Skye, I think it is about sixty 

 years since a dog was landed from a French wreck, through which the 

 long-haired originated.' I was aware previous to writing Mr. M.'Intyre 

 that the Mogstad breed were held in very high repute in old times, and I 

 wrote to a gentleman in Skye, who holds a public appointment there, to 

 obtain for me if he could a description of them and others with which I 

 had reason to know he was well acquainted. This gentleman wrote as 

 follows : ' Dear Sir, I am favoured with your letter anent the pure 

 breed of Skye terriers, as also your description of the different points in 

 the right dogs, in the correctness of which I quite concur. The pure 



