ai.lkn: dogs of tiik amk.hfc an ahohkuvks. 4(')7 



cranial perforation is large and oval, somewhat less than halt' thr 

 breadth of the shaft at the same point. The deltoid ridj^e is t\ picall\ 

 prominent. The l)one itself is slender and not in any way thiek«'n»'d 

 or distorted. It measures: — greatest length, I'M) mm.; antero- 

 posterior diameter of head, 31; transverse diameter of head, 2."); 

 transverse diameter of distal end, 2.")..i; width of distal articular 

 surface, 17. It is thus about three quarters the length of the humerus 

 in the Larger or Common Indian Dog, proportionally slender, yet 

 considerably longer than that of the Techichi. What is undoubtedly 

 the radius of the same dog, measures 129 mm. in greatest length; 

 14.5 in diameter at the proximal and 19 at the distal end. A femur, 

 possibly of the same specimen measures: — greatest length, VM\ mm.; 

 greatest transverse width of distal end, 25. It is thus slightly longer 

 than the humerus, in the normal proportion. The limb-bones imli- 

 cate a dog about the stature of a terrier or a basset-hound. 



Among many isolated lower jaws from Maine shell-heaps are some 

 in which the camassial tooth is noticeably narrow and intennediate 

 in size between that of the tj-pical Short-legged Dog and the Larger 

 or Conunon Indian Dog. These probably represent cross-bred 

 animals as Loomis and Young have suggested. 



Uses. — These smaller dogs were apparently the familiar household 

 pets or hunting companions of the Indians of forested country or of 

 the canoe-using tribes. They were too small to be of service as pack- 

 animals with travois or pannier, and hence seem not to have been 

 much in favor with the Plains Indians, whose main subsistence was the 

 Bison for the hunting of which, dogs were unnecessary. Suckley 

 (1860) particularly mentions that they were kept more as a "play- 

 mate for the children and a pet for the women" among the tribes of 

 the Columbia River. Moreover, a small dog is a better companion 

 in a canoe than a larger clmnsy animal. 



Richardson says of the Short-legged Dog, that it was used in the 

 chase, was very active and agile at jumping. It was perhaps a dog 

 of this t\-pe that was used in hunting the beaver. George Bird Grin- 

 nell (Forest and stream, 1897, 49, p. 382) writes that the Cheyenne 

 Indians, before their intercourse with whites, hunted the Beaver with 

 dogs, by breaking the dam and thus exposing the bea^-er houses and 

 their underwater entrance. "The dogs which were small enough to 

 enter this hole, and yet were pretty good sized animals, went into the 

 hole " and worried the beaver till it followed the dog out, when an 

 Indian waiting outside, clubbed the beaver to death. Le Jeune, in 

 his Relation de ce qui c'est passe en la Xouvelle France [Quebec] 



