Dr. Edwardes-Ker's Opinion. 89 



Here is what Dr. Ker writes : 



" Many hundred years ago, when our island was prin- 

 cipally primeval forest, with but few clearings, it must 

 necessarily have been infested with wolves, bears, and 

 the lesser British carnivorae, and to protect the flocks and 

 herds it must have been requisite to have a large and 

 powerful dog, able to cope with such formidable and 

 destructive foes, able to undergo any amount of fatigue, 

 and with a jacket to withstand all vicissitudes of weather, 

 for his avocation was an everyday one ; day and night, 

 and in all weathers, was he watching and battling with 

 heat and storm and marauding foes. What other dog 

 but the old English sheep-dog possesses attributes neces- 

 sary for the multifarious duties urged upon such a 

 business ? 



"There we find the sagacity, the activity, the enduring 

 strength, the dauntless courage, and the weatherproof 

 jacket combined to such a degree in no other British 

 dog. His origin is lost in the dim obscurity of buried 

 centuries. To my mind his antiquity and concentra- 

 tion of purity of strain are fully shown in the fact, that 

 if there be a strain of old English sheep-dog blood 

 many generations back in any breed of dog, you may 

 stake your life that a typical specimen will every now and 

 again show itself in the litter produced by utterly dissimilar 

 breeds, no matter whether it be a retriever, lurcher, spaniel, 

 or cur of low degree. I have known it occur in many 

 instances, and have owned first-class sheep-dogs whose 

 parentage would make one's hair stand on end with 

 amazement at the fearful incongruity of its component 

 parts. Apparently not one drop of sheep-dog blood for 

 generations, and yet there is the unmistakable youngster 



