HISTORY OF THE DOG. 165 



snow, the delicacy of smell with which they can trace him 

 offers a chance of escape. They scratch away the snow 

 with their feet ; they set up a continued hoarse and solemn 

 bark, which brings the monks and laborers of the convent 

 to their assistance. To provide for the chance that the 

 dogs, without human help, may succeed in discovering 

 the unfortunate traveller, one of them has a flask of spirits 

 round his neck, to which the fainting man may apply for 

 support, and another has a cloak to cover him. These 

 Wonderful exertions are often successful ; and, even where 

 they fail of, restoring him who has perished, the dogs dis- 

 cover the body, so that it may be secured for the recogni- 

 tion of friends ; and such is the effect of the temperature, 

 that the dead features generally preserve their firmness 

 for two years. One of these noble creatures was decorated 

 with a medal, in commemoration of his having saved the 

 lives of twenty-two persons, who but for his sagacity, must 

 have perished. Many travellers who have crossed the 

 passage of St. Bernard since the peace, have seen this 

 dog, and have heard, around the blazing fire of the monks, 

 the story of his career. He died about the year 1816, in 

 an attempt to carry a poor traveller to his anxious family . f 

 The Piedmontese courier arrived at St. Bernard in a very 

 stormy season, laboring to make his way to the little vil- 

 lage of St. Pierre, in the valley beneath the mountain where 

 his wife and children dwelt. It was in vain that the monks 

 attempted to check his resolution to reach his family. 

 They at last gave him two guides, each of whom was ac- 

 companied by a dog, of which one was the remarkable 

 creature whose services had been so valuable to mankind. 

 Descending from the convent, they were instantly over- 

 whelmed by two avalanches, and the same common des- 

 truction awaited the family of the poor courier, who were 

 toiling up the mountain in the hope to obtain some news 

 of their expected friend, They all perished. A story is 

 told of one of these dogs, who, having found a child 



