CHAPTER II. 

 THE ST. BERNARD. 



No dog ever appealed more to the kindly instincts 

 of humanity than the St. Bernard. Not his rich 

 chesnut or tawny colour with dark facings and white 

 collar and blaze, nor his kindly benevolent counte- 

 nance and immense size and power, gave him his 

 popularity. He won that on other " fields" than the 

 artificial ones of dogs shows. He earned his laurels 

 and his popularity on the mountains of Switzerland. 

 Tourists had talked of his intelligence, travellers 

 had written stories of how he saved the lives of 

 benighted travellers overcome by snowstorms. The 

 St. Bernard was a hero in imagination and in antici- 

 pation, long before he was seen in this country ; and 

 when he was seen, his beauty and dignity at once 

 made him master of the situation. 



Some people had called him an Alpine mastiff 

 a bloodhound ; others had termed him a mongrel 

 the consensus of opinion was in favour of his 

 nomenclature being after that hospice of St. Bernard 



