400 
“Spanish white dogs which were wrecked 
on the Isle of Skye at the time when the 
Spanish Armada lost so many ships on the 
western coast.” But putting aside the im- 
probability that the Spaniards took any 
dogs with them on a military expedition 
in galleons which were already overcrowded 
with men and_ insufficiently provisioned, 
there is the fact that the Highlanders 
possessed working terriers long before the 
year 1588. The Norsemen who ruled in 
the Hebrides three centuries earlier, had 
brought dogs with them from Scandinavia, 
and the terriers of the islands were too 
strong to be affected in type by the intro- 
duction into their midst of “a shipwrecked 
Poodle.”” Furthermore, Dr. Caius, who wrote 
a score of years or more before the time 
when Philip sent his Armada to invade 
these shores, described an ‘‘Iseland”’ dog 
which many modern authorities identify 
as a description of the Skye Terrier. There 
can be no question that these dogs, which 
are so typically Highiand in character and 
appearance, as well as the Clydesdale, the 
Scottish, the Dandie Dinmont, and the 
White Poltalloch terriers, are all the de- 
scendants of a purely native Scottish 
original. They are all inter-related; but 
which was the parent breed it is impossible 
to determine. 
It is even difficult to discover which of 
the two distinct types of the Skye Terrier 
was the earlier—the variety whose ears 
stand alertly erect or its near relative whose 
ears are pendulous. Perhaps it does not 
matter. The differences between the prick- 
eared Skye and the drop-eared are so 
slight, and the characteristics which they 
have in common are so many, that a dual 
classification was hardly necessary. The 
earliest descriptions and engravings of the 
breed present a terrier considerably smaller 
than the type of to-day, carrying a fairly 
profuse, hard coat, with short legs, a body 
long in proportion to its height, and with 
ears that were neither erect nor drooping, 
but semi-erect and capable of being raised 
to alertness in excitement. It is the case 
that drop-eared puppies often occur in the 
litters of prick-eared parents, and vice versa. 
THE NEW BOOK 
OF THE sb @ Gs 
A good example of the working Skye 
Terrier of five-and-twenty years ago is 
shown in the engraving on p. 405 of 
Mr. A. M. Shaw’s Flora, who was regarded 
in her day as a good-looking specimen, 
although at the present time she would 
hardly be identified as a true type of the 
breed. Indeed, if you were to strip her of 
her shaggy coat and give her a pair of 
perkily pricked ears, she might as well pass 
muster for a rather long bodied Scottish 
Terrier as for a Skye. Still, the portrait 
shows that a quarter of a century ago great 
length of coat was not sought for in a terrier 
accustomed to worry its way after vermin 
through prickly whin bushes and among 
the jagged passages of a fox cairn. 
As its name implies, this terrier had its 
early home in the misty island of Skye ; 
which is not to say that it was not also 
to be found in Lewis, Oronsay, Colonsay 
and others of the Hebrides, as well as on 
the mainland of Scotland. Dr. Johnson, 
who visited these islands with Boswell in 
1773, and was a guest at Dunvegan Castle, 
made no descriptive note in his letters con- 
cerning the terriers, although he refers 
frequently to the Deerhound; but he 
observed that otters and weasels were 
plentiful in Skye, and that the foxes were 
sO numerous that there was a price upon 
their heads, which had been raised from 
three shillings and sixpence to a guinea, 
“a sum so great in this part of the world 
that in a short time Skye may be as free 
from foxes as England from wolves,” and 
he adds that they were hunted by small dogs. 
He was so accurate an observer that one 
regrets he did not describe the Macleod’s 
terriers and their work. They were at that 
time of many colours, varying from pure 
white to fawn and brown, blue-grey and 
black. The lighter coloured ones had black 
muzzles, ears, and tails. Their tails were 
carried more gaily than would be permitted 
by a modern judge of the breed. 
In those days the Highlander cared less 
for the appearance than he did for the 
sporting proclivities of his dogs, whose 
business it was to oust the tod from the 
earth in which it had taken refuge; and 
