folks, that distingnishes the Thibet dog, is in this cast exactly 

 reversed, if not by nature, at least as far as the teachings of 

 brutal men may prevail. Sometimes this mastiff is called the 

 " Nigger " hound, a term the appUcation of which wiU render 

 any explanation as to this dog's pursuits almost unnecessary. 

 When, in reading slave romances or realities, the reader comes 

 across a runaway-nigger hunt, he may bear in mind that the 

 dog in question is the foremost brute in the chase. When the 

 Spaniards invaded America, the ravages and blood-thirstiness 

 of these creatures astonished the simple natives no less than 

 the " thunder and lightning " of the Spanish arms. 



THE ENGLISH MASTITP. 



This, the largest of the dogs indigenous to this country, is a 

 creature whose chief characteristics might be emulated by not 

 a few bipeds. In times of peace, and when not disturbed by a 

 sense of responsibility, the huge fellow is just as mUd as a 

 kitten. No puppy is too young for him to try a game with ; 

 and should the waspish little brute turn and snap at his huge 

 patron, he will merely blink his eyes good-humouredly and wag 

 his tail, as though he thought it rather a good joke, or, better 

 stiU, remembering his own strength, aa an act of pluck on the 

 part of thb pigmy, and a thing he admired. 



AH this may happen in the daytime, when the sun is shining, 

 and all men have their eyes open to watch over their goods. 

 But stay tiU nightfall, when the mastiff " mounts guard " in 

 the yard or warehouse. Then his whole faculties! are his 

 master's. In any one else's interest, or in his own, he has 

 neither ears nor jaws nor limbs, and should his oldest canine 

 chum approach with no worse intention than a gossip, he will 

 be warned off surlily ; if he comes any closer, he will be bit. 

 His discrimination between friend and foe is seldom at fault, 

 and even in cases that reasoning mortals would regard as a 

 " fix," the mastiff manages sometimes to pull through cle- 

 verly. 



My grandfather used to tell me a dog story illustrative of 

 this. At the time in question he hved at Yarmouth, and had 

 for a neighbour a tanner, whose manufacturing premises were 

 close at hand. The tanner had a mastiff that guarded his yard 

 by night. The tanner had a foreman, who lived with him 

 many years — before the purchase of the mastiff, indeed. As 

 V'e foreman was more about the premises than any one else,| 

 wid as, moreover, it was his business to see that the doe was 



