THE MASTIFF TYPE. 23 



even grew to be somewhat affectionate, but no one else would 

 he let approach him. He showed the utmost indifference to 

 cold, preferring sleeping on the hard cold brick floor, to his 

 wooden bench, either with or without bedding. 



Of recent times Thibet is the only country that has obtained 

 any notoriety for possessing the Asiatic mastiff in any state 

 of purity, but I am inclined to think that isolated specimens 

 and little families of the pure breed still exist in those vast 

 regions, stretching from Thibet right into Russia, in fact 

 through the whole regions of ancient Sarmatia. These Asi- 

 atics are not nearly as muscular as the English breed, and 

 inferior for fighting purposes, and any further introduction of 

 the Asiatic blood into the English breed, although it might 

 give greater dignity of expression, more loose skin and wrinkle, 

 and restore the somewhat lost pendulosity of the lip, and 

 perhaps a smaller ear ; would nevertheless result in failure, 

 as the girth of skull in our English mastiff and bulldog, has 

 been cultivated for generations, and improved by careful 

 breeding not understood by foreigners, for in breeding domestic 

 animals the English have long possessed talent unrivalled by 

 other nations. 



Having thus laid down these generalities I will resume my 

 evidences by saying the earliest and most incontestable proofs 

 we possess of the origin of the various races of dogs, are the 

 delineations of the animals that existed in the days of early 

 Assyrian, Egyptian, and Grecian sculpture, and among 

 these we may trace dogs of the mastiff as well as greyhound 

 and other types, existing centuries before the Christian era. 

 The characteristics are the same to day, as they were when 

 the noble mastiff delighted the eyes of the Assyrian kings. 



