THE ST. BERNARD 189 



are clesire'd to pass the night at the first house of 

 refuge. Every morning a servant, accompanied by a 

 St. Bernard dog, descends from the hospice to take 

 all the travellers under his direction. The dog leads 

 the way, for he can not only discover the buried 

 traveller by his marvellous powers of scent, but he 

 can also to a certainty Keep the track in spite of 

 snowstorms and bewildering drifts. The dogs have 

 been used in these ways, and in no other, for years, 

 and they have acquired a well-deserved high reputa- 

 tion for perseverance, sagacity, and power of scent. 

 ' The old brejed died out many years ago, and we 

 'doubt whether the monks have possessed the present 

 race of dogs more than forty or fifty years. About 

 forty years ago, or a little more, all their dogs and 

 several servants were swept away by an avalanche ; 

 but two the monks had given away were returned 

 to them, and the breed was thus preserved. One of 

 the St. Bernard dogs, ' Barry,' a brindled arid white 

 one, saved the lives of forty-two persons, and was 

 vigorous and active at the age of fifteen years, al- 

 though they generally succumb to rheumatism at their 

 tenth year. He is preserved in the Berne Museum, 

 wearing an iron collar with large spikes, which had 

 often protected him from the wolves. We are told 

 he had discovered a man lost in a snowdrift, and 

 being mistaken for a wolf, the poor fellow received 

 a blow on the head, and ' II etait oblige de moiirir.' ' 

 The avalanche which swept away the old breed 

 occurred in 1815, and in another fifteen years the 

 strain was obviously deteriorating on account of con- 

 sanguinity. The monks therefore sought an outcross, 

 which probably took the form, in the first instance, 

 of a Newfoundland bitch. It is also supposed that 



