24 THE MASTIFF TYPE. 



It will be interesting to my readers to know where they 

 may see for themselves proof of my statements and arguments 

 based thereon as I proceed and in persuance of this plan I 

 may say there is a fine specimen of the Assyrian mastiff, 

 drawn from a baked clay bas-relief found in the Birs-i-Nimroud 

 figured in page 164 of a little work entitled " Ruined Cities of 

 Bible Lands," by Dr. W. K. Tweedie, D. D., it is also figured 

 in the third edition of Nineveh and Persepolis by Mr. Vaux, 

 the bas-relief itself was found by Henry Rawlinson, and 

 presented by the late Prince Consort to the British Museum. 

 The tail in this specimen is curled over the back, the same as 

 seen in the Thibetian mastiff, the pug, and delineations of our 

 earlier English mastiffs. It is also worthy of remark that the 

 Assyrians were always careful to define long hair when it 

 existed, but in this specimen the stern appears free from any 

 roughness, although so minute are the details that the very 

 fraying at the end of the rope is depicted, the loose skin hangs 

 down the face in enormous wrinkles or folds, and the lips 

 were extremely pendulous evidently, although the mouth is 

 marked by a slit or line in the usual conventional form of 

 Assyrian sculpture. The ears are of medium size, chest very 

 deep, and limbs massive, the head short and of great volumn, 

 and muzzle short and truncated. There is a great similarity 

 between this dog and some of our noted English specimens. 



Further examples of the Assyrian mastiff are figured in 

 " Gleanings from the Natural History of the Ancients," by 

 the Rev. W. Houghton, and they have more of the European 

 mastiff character about them, and their sterns while carried 

 gaily are not raised above the line of the level of the back. 



There is a fine specimen of one of the Assyrian mastiffs 

 figured in Berjeau's work. " The Dog in Old Sculptures, 



