TERRIERS. 159 



at the head of the race of our dogs ; at the same time 

 asserting, that if there be an indigenous canine genus 

 in Great Britain, it is that to which he belongs. Nor 

 is the arrangement, of so placing the race, to be re" 

 jected, he says, because we are accustomed to con- 

 sider that appellation as applicable only to mongrels. 

 He then goes on to establish his position, by learned 

 references to Greek words ; and having done so, 

 states, that among them the curs are constantly 

 found individuals endowed with the keenest faculties 

 and discernment. One of them, related in Mon- 

 taigne's Essays the quaint old essayist himself 

 having witnessed the fact was the guide of a blind 

 man, who, when his road lay along a brook, would 

 draw his master to the farther side from the water's 

 edge, although it was there much more rugged and 

 unfit to walk on. This was veiy intellectual, but not 

 equal to our own sample. 



