714 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



dawned, but to return to their master, and inform 

 him that they had lost his whole flock of lambs, and 

 knew not what was become of them. " On our way 

 home, however," says Hogg, **we discovered a lot of 

 lambs at the bottom of a deep ravine, called the ' Flesh 

 Cleuch,' and the indefatigable Sirrah standing in front 

 of them, looking round for some relief, but still true to 

 his charge. The sun was then up, and when we first 

 came in view, we concluded it was one of the divisions 

 which Sirrah had been unable to manage, until he 

 came to that commanding situation. But what was 

 our astonishment, when we discovered that not one 

 lamb of the w^hole flock was wanting ! How he had 

 got all the divisions collected in the dark is beyond my 

 comprehension. The charge was left entirely to him- 

 self, from midnight until the rising sun ; and if all the 

 shepherds in the forest had been there to have assisted 

 him, they could not have effected it with greater pro- 

 priety. All that I can further say is, that I never felt 

 so grateful to any creature under the sun as I did to 

 my honest Sirrah that morning." 



THE COACH-DOG, OR DALMATIAN. 



This dog, once so common an attendant upon 

 gentlemen's carriages, has now become exceedingly 

 scarce. Some authors have confounded him with 

 the Danish dog. Buffon and others imagine him to 

 be the harrier of Bengal ; but his native country is 

 Dalmatia, a mountainous district of European Turkey. 



In Britain the Dalmatian has only been used for 

 ornament, w^hile in Italy he was long the harrier of that 

 country, and used for upwards of two centuries as a 

 dog of the chase. He has also been used as a pointer, 

 for which he has been found even more adapted than 

 for hunting ; and many instances have occurred where 



