158 The Sporting Dog 



This setter and spaniel cross is enough of a water- 

 dog for all ordinary needs, and is an improvement 

 in brains and behavior. Sometimes the cross 

 makes a rattling good quail and snipe dog. 



Everybody is familiar with the Irish water- 

 spaniel. He is so unlike any other dog that to 

 be seen is to be both noticed and remembered. 

 His topknot, his bare, 'possum tail and his closely 

 curling coat mark him in any dog company. 



The Chesapeake is not so peculiar or distinct. 

 In fact, he is of rather common appearance. 

 Stout and strong, sedge or rusty brown in color, 

 the coat dense and close, he is not a beauty. The 

 breed came into being in the upper part of the 

 bay shores in Maryland. What breeds produced 

 this dog is not fully established. The staple folk- 

 yarn of the Chesapeake is that an errant princess 

 of the dog kind travelled out on the marsh seeking 

 adventures, and had a love-affair with an otter of 

 the other sex. The fruit of the damosel's romance 

 was the Chesapeake Bay dog. The dense coat 

 and fondness for water are the contribution of the 

 paternal side. This version of the ancient tale of 

 the Water Nick is, of course, plain rot. If the 

 dog-maiden had encountered an able-bodied otter, 

 — even throwing aside the science of genus fertility, 

 — she would either have kept her distance or ever 

 after have rued the day of her errancy. 



General Ferdinand C. Latrobe, ex- Mayor of 



