The St. Bernard. 41 



then, he was known as the St. Bernard ; for I have 

 an extract from a magazine dated 1843, in which it 

 is said that a St. Bernard puppy, born in London, 

 endeavoured during a severe winter to track the 

 footsteps in the snow just as his parents might have 

 done years before on the Alps, and what made this 

 still more strange was the fact that until the snow 

 fell the puppy had never before attempted anything 

 of the kind. 



Then Albert Smith, a celebrated entertainer a 

 generation ago, who pleased our fathers, and our- 

 selves in our childhood with his interesting lectures 

 and panoramas, after one of his visits to the conti- 

 nent, returned with a couple of St. Bernard dogs 

 from the Hospice. These he made a most attractive 

 feature of his already pleasant show, introducing 

 them in connection with Mont Blanc. This would 

 be about 1850. 



Still the dog of the Hospice did not attain popu- 

 larity. The country was not at that time educated 

 up to the pitch of dog shows ; railway communi- 

 cation was not then what it is now, and, moreover, 

 it is quite likely that had the general public wanted 

 St. Bernards, they could not have obtained them 

 in sufficient numbers to satisfy the demand. 

 Canine history tells us that a distemper of a viru- 

 lent character attacked the Hospice dogs about 



