32 BRITISH DOGS 



most suitable dogs. The crossing was also tried with German or 

 Danish dogs. 



"The assumption that the breed, as it existed for five hundred 

 years, still exists, is in relation to the outward signs and to the use- 

 fulness and performances. Even to-day the Monastery of Great St. 

 Bernard could not exist without the services of its dogs. In winter 

 the daily service of the dogs consists in tracing the passes. On one 

 series, from the Cantine au Proz (on the Swiss side) to the Hospice 

 and back, and the other series, from the Hospice to St. Remy and 

 back (on the Italian side), the peculiar formation of the mountains 

 causes mistakes, so that the most experienced monks and their 

 servants have to be guided after every fresh fall of snow by the 

 sharp senses, especially that of smell, of the dogs. I give this 

 explanation to show that the breed of St. Bernard dogs, with the 

 necessary strength of body and intellectual qualities, still exists as 

 it has existed for centuries, and that the old breed was improved by 

 crossing with Newfoundland dogs, with systematically strict choice of 

 the offspring, giving preference to those which most resembled the 

 parents in hair, colour, and build. The result of the first crossing 

 showed a disadvantage in the long hair proving unsuitable to the 

 winter service, because it collected so much snow that the dogs 

 could not move about, and thus lost their lives. This is why the 

 long-haired puppies were sold as unserviceable, or were presented 

 to benefactors of or donors to the monastery. 



"The celebrated Barry, now in the Natural History Museum 

 at Berne, was taken alive to Berne in 1815, and afterwards stuffed. 

 Barry is a representative of the old breed before crossing with the 

 Newfoundland dogs, and he must remain the purest type of the 

 original St. Bernard breed of dogs. Whence come the number of 

 so-called St. Bernard dogs which are to be found in the middle 

 of Switzerland, and nearly always of the long-haired type ? It 

 is this question that I am happy partly to answer. Amongst the 

 most prominent donors to the Hospice who received as presents 

 dogs resulting from the long-haired crossing with Newfoundland 

 dogs were Mr. Pourtales, Berne; Mr. Rougement, Morat ; Prince Von 

 Russland, Berne ; .a breeder at Bussy ; Colonel Risold, Berne ; and 

 Messrs. Cornaz, Morat. These dogs, presented from the St. Bernard 

 Hospice, and their offspring I have known mostly since 1838. 

 All of these were red, with white marks, black face, black neck, and 

 double wolf-claws, and of a height not since attained, strongly 

 built, deep chested, and with large and noble heads. The dogs 

 in Mettlen were long-haired, with fine, high-worn feather tail, and 

 their offspring, I have observed since 1850, were trained in the same 

 way as the parents had been. From these were bred the dogs of 

 Marchligen, Deisswyl, and Riggisberg. Most of the long-haired 

 so-called St. Bernard dogs are to be found in a degenerate state 



