516 
suffered to die out, and if your Irish Wolf- 
hound should threaten to become extinct, 
or an avalanche menace your St. Bernard, 
there is always some Captain Graham or 
some Cumming Macdona ready at hand to 
snatch the breed from the fate of the dodo. 
What Captain Graham did for the noble 
Irish Wolfhound has been done with even 
more timely promptitude by Monsieur 
Dretzen for the magnificent Chien des 
Pyrénées. 
The importance of this dog will have 
been gathered from occasional references to 
him in the foregoing chapters. We have seen 
that he bore a considerable part in the origin 
of the dog of St. Bernard ; he was probably 
used as an outcross to produce the white 
and black Newfoundland, and it is certain 
that Sir Walter Scott’s famous Deerhound 
Maida had a Pyrenean sire. Whenever 
our larger breeds have required an infusion 
of strengthening blood there seems to have 
been recourse to the virile Pyrenean strain. 
Yet notwithstanding the acknowledged 
excellence of this race of dogs, it has been 
allowed to become so rare that recently 
the Royal Zoological Society tried in vain 
to discover a single genuine specimen that 
could be bought for money, and it may be 
said that at the present time there are not 
in all Europe more than a dozen really 
typical examples of the breed. 
Unquestionably it is a dog of very ancient 
origin. For centuries it has been practically 
confined to the Pyrenean mountains, and 
more particularly to the southern slopes of 
the chain, where it was kept by the Spanish 
shepherds to protect their flocks from the 
ravages of bear and wolf. They appear 
always to have been white in colour, and 
formerly the coat was short. It was not 
until numbers of them were removed to 
the French or northern side of the mountains, 
where the climate is colder, that the coat 
grew to the length which now contributes 
so materially to the dog’s beauty. 
Technically it is not a sheepdog, but a 
Mastiff, and but for the difference in colour 
it bears considerable resemblance to the 
Mastiff of Thibet. Somewhat higher on 
the leg, and perhaps less muscular, it has 
THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 
the same massive body, the same character 
and texture of coat, and the same form of 
head. The shape of the skull is precisely 
similar, so is the carriage of the ear, the 
set of the eye, and the form of the muzzle. 
In the Pyrenean dog the flews are less heavy, 
the eye shows less haw, and the expression 
of countenance is more kindly. Probably 
they are as a rule more docile, but the writer 
has seen specimens quite as savage as the 
Thibetan dog is reputed to be. The super- 
ficial resemblance may be due to the fact 
that they are both what the French classify 
as Chiens de Montagne. 
Like the Thibet Mastiff, the Pyrenean dog 
was used for protecting rather than for 
driving or leading sheep. In the beginning 
of summer the Pyrenean shepherds moved 
their flocks from the lowland pastures to the 
mountains, where they remained for a 
period of four or five months, often at an 
altitude of five thousand feet above the 
sea level. The dogs accompanied them, 
and in a country infested by bears and wolves 
there could be no better or more faithful 
and courageous guardian. Gifted with an 
exceedingly keen sense of hearing and an 
excellent nose, the Pyrenean dog was 
accustomed to mount sentry at night over 
the sleeping flocks; and if a marauding 
Bruin should approach, or a stealthy pack 
of wolves draw nigh, he knew it from afar, 
and was ever alert to warn his master, or 
himself to hasten to the attack, and the 
wolf or bear who should face him would 
have to deal with an exceedingly formidable 
foe, whose quickness of decision and adroit- 
ness in combat might be compared with the 
trained skill of the fighting dog of the arena. 
So trusty was this canine guardian of the 
fold, that the shepherd could with confidence 
leave him at intervals for two or three days 
at a time, knowing that during his absence 
the dog would tend the sheep unaided, 
never deserting his post of duty. His 
watchfulness was incessant. At nightfall 
he was accustomed to take up a position 
commanding his woolly charge, and there 
remain sleepless and vigilant until dawn ; 
or if there were two of them, one would 
make a periodical tour of the mountain to 
