158 TERRIERS. 



in riding to Llangollen fair, picked up a silver coin 

 that his pony kicked out of the dust. This he had put 

 into his bag; and it was not till long after he missed 

 it, he remembered that, while transacting his busi- 

 ness in the fair, a strange dog had stuck closely to 

 his heels, and followed him to his bedroom, when he 

 retired for the nidit. What occasion Moustache had 



o 



'taken for abstracting his bag, or by what necromancy 

 of nose he knew it contained his master's money, was 

 alike mysteiious ; all that ever transpired was, — that 

 the drover had his treasure, and the reader has the 

 tale, to deal with it according to his pleasure. 



The latest fashion introduced in terriers is the 

 variety kno^\Tl as the Isle of Skye breed. Its pecu- 

 liarities are, eyes covered with impenetrable curtains 

 of hair which hang over them, and a back that, if 

 cut into quarters, would be enough for four terriers 

 of ordinaiy symmetry. The direct origin of the 

 terrier, according to Blaine (who of course follows 

 somebody else), like that of many other well marked 

 varieties of the dog, is involved in much obscurity. 

 Some consider his antiquity questionable ; while, on 

 the other hand, it is not easy to mistake the dog so 

 minutely described by Oppian, for any other than the 

 terrier. Buffon's synopsis classes him with the 

 hound, nor is it at all improbable that he is thus 

 derived; and that, by frequent intermixtures and 

 crossings, he at length exhibits all the varieties we 

 now meet with as to size, colour, and qualities. Our 

 friend. Colonel Hamilton Smith, places the terrier 



