502 BRITISH DOGS 



nothing, said Mr. Dalziel, to astonish us in long-haired and com- 

 paratively short-haired dogs, related to each other, existing side by 

 side, and the more each was bred within itself, the further would 

 be the removal from each other in all points of difference. The 

 Rough and the Smooth Collies furnish an instance in point. 



Another supporter of the theory that the Skye Terrier was the 

 Iseland Dog of Dr. Caius was Mr. John Flinn, who thus deals with 

 the subject in the last Edition of this work : 



" Early writers on natural history have not left sufficient material 

 to enable us to arrive at the origin of the different breeds of Terriers 

 native to this country, consequently we are left to conjecture what it 

 may have been; and this is all the more unsatisfactory when we 

 consider, as Darwin says, that ' a breed, like a dialect of a language, 

 can hardly be said to have a definite origin.' Some theorists assert 

 that the Skye Terrier and the Dandie Dinmont are both descended 

 from the original Scotch Terrier ; but as the first named appears to 

 have existed as a distinct breed as early as there is any mention of 

 the Scotch Terrier, it would be difficult to prove this assertion. 

 The first mention made of the Scotch Terrier is by the Bishop of 

 Ross, who wrote in the latter half of the sixteenth century, but his 

 description is too meagre to furnish data on which to base any 

 argument as to its affinity to the other breeds. He says : ' There 

 is also another kind of scenting dog of low height, indeed, but of 

 bulkier body, which, creeping into subterraneous burrows, routs out 

 foxes, badgers, martens, and wild cats from their lurking-places and 

 dens. Then, if he at any time finds the passage too narrow, opens 

 himself a way with his feet, and that with so great labour that he 

 frequently perishes through his own exertions.' 



No subsequent writer, until comparatively recent times, de- 

 scribes the Scotch Terrier with any minuteness ; but Caius, who 

 wrote his work on ' Englishe Dogges ' a few years before the Bishop 

 of Ross, mentions Iseland ' dogges,' which, there can be little 

 doubt, were of the same breed as afterwards came to be known by 

 the name of Skye Terriers. They were fashionable in his time as 

 lap-dogs, and were ' brought out of barbarous borders from the 

 uttermost countryes Northwards,' etc. ; and ' they,' he says, ' by 

 reason of the length of their heare, make show neither of face nor 

 body, and yet these Curres, forsooth, because they are so straunge, 

 are greatly set by, esteemed, taken up, and made of, in room of the 

 Spaniell gentle, or comforter.' It would be vain to conjecture 

 whence this * straunge ' animal came, or when it first found a home 

 in the western islands, but it seems certain that it was there three 

 centuries ago. Once there, everything was favourable for its 

 preservation as, or development into, a distinct breed. The sea 

 forms a natural barrier which would prevent contamination, and the 



