53 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE ST. BERNARD. 



AMONGST the great diversity, both physical and mental in size, character, and adaptability to 

 our various requirements, taste, or mere whims and fancies which the canine family offer to 

 the philo-kuon, the dog of St. Bernard stands out in bold relief by his picturesque arrangement of 

 colours, but still more by his immense size and grand proportions. His tout ensemble offers a 

 strongly-marked contrast weighing, as he often does, 150 to 160 pounds to his diminutive 

 brother the black-and-tan toy Terrier, who with his more sober tints sometimes fails to turn the 

 scale at two pounds, and whose fragile form appeals for protection, instead of acting, as his giant 

 relative does, the rdle of protector. A greater weight than even 160 pounds may have been 

 obtained in isolated instances, but this was probably when the dog was in a very fat condition. 

 When we consider the above two distinct and now pure breeds, distant in many respects 

 from each other as can well be imagined, it almost staggers the belief in the common origin 

 of the domesticated dog ; but like many other facts that present difficulties at first sight, this 

 also disappears or is greatly lessened by reflection. 



We have, most of us, to consider in dealing with difficulties of this kind, that our personal 

 experiences of the changes which take place in animal forms, by careful selection and other 

 influences, is, by the necessity of our existence, limited. Yet how rapid the descent from the 

 ail-but perfect form of the pure-bred dog to the graceless and unshapely mongrel, where the 

 animal is left to stalk uncared for at a time when the greatest watchfulness is required, 

 must be patent to all. On the other hand, although improvement is always comparatively slow, 

 none of us who have taken any interest in, or closely watched the progress of the breed under 

 consideration, can have failed to mark the steady improvement which has taken place. Their 

 faults have been eliminated, and desired qualities developed, under the patient care and intel- 

 ligent skill of the breeder ; so that could Mr. Macdona's Tell or Mr. J. Murchison's equally 

 fortunate import Thor revisit the scenes of their victories, they would meet with numbers of 

 their progeny even superior to themselves. We have simply to remember these facts, as 

 occurring in a very short space of time, to prove how wonderfully plastic the dog is in the 

 hands of man, and how amenable to surrounding and often accidental influences. And to 

 remember also that from time immemorial he has been subject to man, will reconcile us to 

 the fact that the tiny Toy and the gigantic St. Bernard are indeed of the same race and 

 family. 



It is not, however, to his physical excellence, his stately form, superbly grand and 

 beautiful exterior, alone, that the St. Bernard owes his present position as first favourite 

 with such numbers. The work in which he has been engaged for centuries has 

 surrounded him with almost a religious halo in the popular mind. Here, where he has 

 been naturalised, his gentle manners and the benevolent and magnanimous character which 

 his countenance expresses and his conduct endorses, fully sustain the prestige with which he 

 was introduced to us. Stories of the intelligence displayed by the St. Bernard in his search 



