58 Useful Companions of Man. 



and occasionally fully-bred dogs are met with brindled, 

 or rufous dun mixed with white. There are several 

 varieties in texture of coat. The smooth dog is almost 

 as free from any approach to feather as a mastiff. If 

 this dog has any tendency to feather, it will declare itself 

 in profile just below the set on of the head. His coat, if 

 well examined, will be found more dense than a mastiff's, 

 and of greater volume. The shaggy-coated Newfoundland 

 has a smooth face, but within two inches of the skull the 

 coat suddenly elongates, and except that he is very clean 

 to the angle of his neck, he is thoroughly feathered in his 

 outline. His coat generally parts down the back, and 

 this parting is continued to the end of his tail. His hind 

 legs are close-coated from the hock, and his feet all 

 round are nearly as free of feather as a cat's. Colour 

 and coats, lo points. 



The stern is long and bushy, usually slightly turned on 

 one side, and carried in a trailing fashion. The gait is 

 rather loose and waddhng, but this is a defect owing to 

 the- slackness of loin. Carriage, 5 ; stern, 5. In height 

 this dog is sometimes ^-^ or 34 in., averaging 29 or 30. 



The St. Bernard Dog has been so well described 

 by an experienced hand in the Field newspaper, that I 

 extract his account verbatim : — 



" About the year 962, Bernard de Meuthon built two 

 ' hospitia^ one on Mont Joux, where a temple of Jupiter 

 stood — constructing his hospice from the ruins of the 

 temple ; the other on the road that leads over the Grison 

 Alps at Colonne Joux, so named from a column dedicated 

 to the same heathen deity. The benevolent builder 

 presided over both hospitia for forty years, and left to his 

 monks the duty of affording refuge to travellers, and 

 searching for those who were lost in the snow. St. 

 Bernard's portrait, and that of his dog on the same panel, 

 is still in existence, and the dog appears to be a blood- 

 hound. The Hospice of St. Bernard Pass stands 7,668 

 feet above the sea level, and is undoubtedly the highest 

 inhabited spot in Europe. Nine months in the year the 

 snow is thick on the ground, and in the very worst part 

 of winter from 1,500 to 2,000 of the poor inhabitants of 



