THE COLLIE. 



99 



woolly floor to whisper a stern command 

 in the ear of some patriarch of the flock ; 

 or holding them in the corner of a field, 

 immobile under the spell of his vigilant 

 eye. He is at his best as a worker, con- 

 scious of the responsibility reposed in him ; 

 a marvel of generalship, gentle, judicious, 

 slow to anger, quick to action ; the price- 

 less helpmeet of his master, of whom he 

 is the business half, sharing ambitions, 

 perils, sorrows, joys, sun and snow — the 

 most useful member of all the tribe of 

 dogs. 



Few dogs possess the fertile, resourceful 

 brain of the Collie. He can be trained to 

 perform the duties of other breeds. He 

 makes an excellent sporting dog, and can 

 be taught to do the work of the Pointer 

 and the Setter, as well as that of the Water 

 Spaniel and the Retriever. He is clever 

 at hunting, having an excellent nose, is a 

 good vermin-killer, and a most faithful 

 watch, guard, and companion. I have seen 

 many companies of performing dogs, and 

 one of the very best of them was a Collie. 

 Major Richardson, who during the past ten 

 years has been successful in training dogs 

 to ambulance work on the field of battle, 

 has carefully tested the abilities of various 

 breeds in discovering wounded soldiers, 

 and he gives to the Collie the decided 

 preference . 



It is, however, as an assistant to the 

 flock-master, the farmer, the butcher, and 

 the drover that the Collie takes his most 

 appropriate place in every-day life. The 

 shepherd on his daily rounds, travelling 

 over miles of moorland, could not well 

 accomplish his task without his Collie's 

 skilful aid. One such dog, knowing what 

 is expected of him, can do work which 

 would otherwise require the combined efforts 

 of a score of men. James Hogg, the 

 Ettrick Shepherd, declared that without 

 the shepherd's dog the whole of the moun- 

 tainous land of Scotland would not be 

 worth a sixpence, and that it would require 

 more hands to manage a flock of sheep, 

 gather them from the hills, force them into 

 houses and folds, and drive them to markets 

 than the profits of the whole stock would 



be capable of maintaining ; and the state- 

 ment is not wide of the truth. 



I have gone the rounds with the shep- 

 herds on the high hills of Yarrow, and 

 can personally testify to the amount of 

 work entrusted to the dogs. Begin the 

 day's labours on a large hirsel ; picture 

 the shepherd winding his way along the 

 narrow bridle track up the hillside, his 

 dog busy all the time gathering the sheep 

 from the distant ravines and crags, bringing 

 them into sight from beyond intervening 

 knolls and shoulders ; consider the vast 

 mileage that the dog covers in his bounding 

 pace, the difficult road that he travels over 

 rough heather, sharp rocks, and marshy 

 hollows ! The shepherd tramps miles, per- 

 haps, but on a beaten track, while his Collie, 

 taking a wider range, is compelled to gallop 

 at high speed in order finally to reach the 

 hilltop at the same time as his master 

 and continue the industrious search on 

 the farther side. It is a hard day's work 

 for any dog : the hardest that the canine 

 race is expected to perform. Even in the 

 lowland sheep farms, where the flocks are 

 easily handled, and where there are no 

 awkward jumps across dangerous chasms, 

 there are still big days for the dogs — the 

 dipping, clipping, and weaning days, when 

 the parks near the steadings are white 

 with their bleating crowds needing to be 

 carefully marshalled ; for the Collie well 

 knows the trouble that will follow if one 

 of the fleet-footed sheep should break away, 

 and, whether standing or resting, he never 

 takes his watchful eyes off his charge. 



The pastoral life of the shepherd and his 

 dog is a healthy one, not devoid of pleasures. 

 But take a wintry day on the rain-swept 

 hills, or a snowstorm on the Grampians, the 

 Cheviots or the Lammermoors ; think of 

 the memorable storm in the South of Scot- 

 land on January 24th, 1794, when nineteen 

 shepherds and five-and-forty dogs perished 

 in the execution of their duty ! It is at 

 such times that the Collie meets hardship 

 and peril with the heroism of a true soldier. 



To the lover of dogs there can be no 

 pleasure more keen than that of spending 

 a holiday on a sheep farm. Recently I 



