THE ST. BEENAED DOG. 185 



are regularly visited, and their inmates, if any, delivered from death, which 

 inevitably follows -on long exposure to the cold of these regions. In their 

 arduous struggles to reach these stations, the rough-coated dogs become matted 

 with icicles, the weight of which seriously interferes with their efforts ; and, as in 

 the case of the over-coated colley, experience teaches that where active work is 

 to be done, a short coat is the best. Sometimes the dog is required to follow a 

 lost traveller by the scent which he crosses, and for this purpose a keen nose is 

 necessary, and there is plenty of evidence that it is well developed. Mr. 

 Macdona's Tell (whose portrait illustrates the rough strain described in this article), 

 once tracked his master for sixteen miles in the snow, in which his intelli- 

 gence was taxed severely to ascertain the mode in which the Mersey had been 

 crossed, the scent failing him at the pier. Watching the various steamers as 

 they came alongside, he visited each in succession, until by his nose he discovered 

 the right one ; and crossing over in that, and again taking up the scent on the 

 opposite shore, he followed it for ten miles till he reached the object of his 

 persevering search. Most of the St. Bernards will, like the Newfoundland, " fetch 

 and carry ; " and, in relation to this habit, an excellent story is told by Mr. Macdona 

 of his dog Sultan, which shows their sagacity in a remarkable manner. This dog 

 was employed regularly to fetch the daily newspaper from the village, and on one 

 occasion he was engaged in this duty, when a Sunday-school boy, who had been 

 previously allowed to play with him at a school feast, met him, and, presuming on 

 the good temper shown by the dog before, tried to take the paper out of his mouth. 

 Sultan at once quietly dropped the paper, to avoid a struggle, and jumped at the 

 boy's cap, which he took off and held as a ransom for his paper. The boy, 

 objecting to the loss of his cap, quickly made the exchange, and off marched Sultan 

 in triumph with it to his master. 



The two strains, rough and smooth, are considered to be distinct enough to 

 require separate classes, but sometimes a litter is composed of specimens of each. 

 Except in coat, there is little or no difference between them. 



Having enumerated the principal specimens of the rough strain, I may now 

 mention that Monarque, now dead (whose portrait accompanies this article, drawn 

 by Mr. Baker from an excellent photograph), stands at the head of the smooth 

 division; facile princeps. He was bred by M. Schumacher, of Berne, and was by 

 Souldan from Diane, being own brother to Schumacher's Barry, above mentioned. 

 In colour he was white and yellowish red, of immense size and substance, and with 

 wonderfully good legs and feet. Until his death he maintained his supremacy on 

 the show bench, being the winner of about a dozen first prizes at the best shows, 

 besides those given at smaller ones. In addition to him, Mr. Macdona also 

 possessed Victor, Sultan, Bernard (imported from the Monastery), Swiss, Jura, and 

 Jungfrau, daughters of Monarque, and several others of lesser note ; while Miss 

 Aglionby's Jura (bred at the Monastery of St. Bernard), Mr. Layland's Le Moine, 

 and Mr. Gresham's The Shah have met with a certain amount of success. But, 

 in spite of the above list of grand dogs, as a lot the smooth-coated St. Bernards will 

 not bear comparison with the rough in this country. 



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