CHAPTER LI 

 THE POMERANIAN 



THERE is little doubt that this variety originated in Northern Europe, 

 and, if it did not actually come from the district associated with 

 the late Prince Bismarck, and known as Pomerania, that part of 

 the world has produced several varieties of the canine race with 

 many of the characteristics of those we know under the above 

 name. 



Although some persons hold the idea that the dogs which have 

 long been kept in Germany, and there called by the generic term of 

 Spitz, are distinct from what in this country we know as Pomeranians, 

 this is not the writer's opinion, which is strengthened by the fact 

 of his having had before him on many occasions specimens imported 

 from Germany in fact, in the early days of shows most of the 

 best animals of this variety were imported. 



It is more than likely that these dogs were not originally kept as 

 pets, but as utility dogs, either as guards or possibly to assist in the 

 care of sheep and cattle. Probably, too, they were not of diminu- 

 tive size. Selection and interbreeding have doubtless produced the 

 present race of Toys in response to the demand for such. The dogs 

 the writer remembers seeing in different parts of Germany many 

 years ago were larger than even the largest of any seen in this 

 country for a considerable time, although they possessed all the 

 characteristics of the variety to a marked extent. In fact, for true 

 type and character the writer has seen more first-class specimens 

 over i5lb. in weight than he has in any of those strictly classed 

 as Toys, and nearly all the best-known specimens have passed 

 through his hands during the last twenty years. 



Some old illustrations of what were then called Greenland Dogs, 

 and that were used in pursuit of the polar bears, the writer has 

 seen in books upon dogs published more than fifty years ago. 

 They represented animals of much the same character as Pomeranians, 

 but they were of the size of small Collies. In all instances the 

 colour seemed to be pure white, as it was in other books of the 

 same period in which were shown dogs very similar in appearance 



