ABORIGINAL DOGS. 331 



small animal kept as a familiar pet by the Indian 

 women.* It had yet so much aptitude for out-of- 

 door purposes, as occasionally to return to a state 

 of independence. The Goschis of Charlevoix, and 

 the Gasques of Garcilasso and Peres, described as 

 small dogs absolutely mute, with downy or silky hair 

 of different and often of bright colours, possessed by 

 the natives of St. Domingo, and the neighbouring 

 islands, and used in the chase of their almost only 

 quadruped the Agouti, before the arrival of the 

 Spaniards, was a dog of the Alco race. The specimen 

 which Mr. Bullock brought from Mexico and ex- 

 hibited with his collection of Mexican curiosities at 

 the Egyptian Hall, he described as an animal of the 

 wild breed. Colonel Hamilton Smith represents it 

 as having the appearance of a Newfoundland Puppy, f 

 ' It was small, with rather a large head ; elongated 

 occiput ; full muzzle ; pendulous ears ; having long- 

 soft hair on the body. In colour, it was entirely 

 white, excepting a large black spot covering each ear, 

 and part of the forehead and cheek, with a fulvous 

 mark above each eye, and another black spot on the 

 rump ; the tail was rather long, well fringed, and 

 white.' The island breed of this Dog is extinct. We 



* Bryan Edwards, in his History of the West Indies (vol. i. p. 116.), 

 when speaking of the Alco, quotes an author named Acosto, who says 

 that " the dogs among the Indians of St. Domingo were a small mute 

 creature, with a nose like that of a fox, which the natives called Alco. 

 The Indians were so fond of these little animals that they carried them 

 on their shoulders wherever they went, and nourished them in their 

 bosoms," 



f Naturalist's Library, Mammalia, vol. x. Dogs. 



