68 Modern Dogs. 



proper roads. Here the monks told me that they 

 found the long-coated dogs quite useless for work 

 of this kind. Their jackets become matted with 

 the snow, but worst of all it affects their feet, 

 ( balling ' and freezing between the toes to such an 

 extent as to cause lameness so severe as to quite 

 incapacitate them from walking. Indeed, the sores 

 arising therefrom are sometimes so serious as to 

 cause death. 



" The following morning we were awakened at 

 4 a.m. by the ringing of the Hospice bell. Snow 

 and rain mingled together came down in torrents r 

 and the air was very cold ; but we had breakfast at 

 6 o'clock, and then went to see the morgue. One 

 of the monks took down a wooden shutter, and we 

 looked through an open grated window, saw the 

 bodies of travellers who had been found in the snow. 

 We were told that the bodies were still quite fresh r 

 though most of them had been there for years. 

 About 8 o'clock the rain and snow abated, so we 

 commenced our return journey to Martigny. I 

 omitted to say that in my bedroom at the Hospice 

 was a very good coloured drawing of a group of five 

 St. Bernards. All these dogs were of the type of 

 Hospice Pluto, before mentioned. At Chamounix 

 we saw no St. Bernards, but the proprietor of the 

 Hotel Tete Noir said he had once kept some, but 



