1 8 THE MASTIFF TYPE. 



to the Asiatic mastiff in its purity), the body cylindrical and 

 heavy, and limbs extremely massive, the stern mostly carried 

 upwards over the back in a hoop-like curve. 



These dogs appear to have been of vast size, equalling in 

 proportion, the largest of our modern dogs, and their height 

 may be estimated to have been from 30 to 34 inches at shoulder, 

 and at times even 36 inches perhaps. 



The next historical mention of the breed is when in 326 B.C. 

 Alexander the Great crossed the Indus and that mighty 

 conqueror appears to have been the introducer of them into 

 Greece, as before his time the true mastiff with pendent ears 

 appears to have been unknown. Megasthenes who flourished 

 B.C. 300 being about the first of the Grecian writers, who 

 mentions the true mastiff with pendent ears. 



Coming to more recent times Marco Polo the celebrated 

 Venetian traveller, who penetrated the districts of Central 

 Asia, and Mongolia, writing in 1295 nientions the Asiatic 

 mastiffs, which he describes as large as asses, probably no 

 exaggeration if he meant to compare them to some of the 

 smaller breeds of 'the domestic ass. 



Of later years these Asiatic mastiffs appear to have degen- 

 erated greatly in many districts, owing seemingly to having 

 been crossed with the sharp muzzled smaller breeds owned 

 by the inhabitants of Central Asia, and the finest specimens 

 that have come before European notice have been of Thibetian 

 extraction, so much so, that the Asiatic mastiff has generally 

 become denominated the Thibet mastiff (MastivusThibetanus). 

 The Penny Encyclopaedia states that Mr. Hodson in a paper, 

 * on the mamalia of Napal ' published in the 'Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Calcutta,' mentions inter alia under the 



