248 Modern Dogs. 



appearance of being very short. This is the 

 prevailing breed of the western isles of Scotland. " 

 This, of course, will answer for a description of our 

 ordinary Skye terrier. Then of the third variety, 

 which may be taken to be the ordinary or mongrel 

 variety, the writer in the " Sportsman " says this " is 

 much larger than the former two, being generally 

 from 15 to i Sin. in height, with the hair very hard 

 and wiry, and much shorter than that of the others. 

 It is from this breed that the best bull terriers have 

 been produced." 



Whoever wrote the above I do not know, but 

 Thomson Gray, in his " Dogs of Scotland," 

 makes a similar quotation, which he says is from 

 " Brown's Field Book," also published in 1833. 

 However, I take the description to be interesting. 



What to me appears to be the strangest part of 

 all, is that even the Highland sportsmen of that time, 

 and a little later, called their native terrier the Skye 

 terrier. St. John in his " Highland Sports " (1846) 

 alluded to some of his terriers as Skyes, when they 

 were undoubtedly our " die-hards." The long silky- 

 coated dogs of the western isles would have been no 

 use to a sportsman such as he, and although game 

 enough in their way, they, the Skyes, did not possess 

 the activity nor the power to tackle the wild cat, the 

 marten, and other vermin found in the wilds of 



