58 Useful Companions of Man. 
and occasionally fully-bred dogs are met with brindled, 
or rufous dun mixed with white. There are several 
varieties in texture of coat. The smooth dog is almost 
as free from any approach to feather as a mastiff. If 
this dog has any tendency to feather, it will declare itself 
in profile just below the set on of the head. His coat, if 
well examined, will be found more dense than a mastiff’s, 
and of greater volume. The shaggy-coated Newfoundland 
has a smooth face, but within two inches of the skull the 
coat suddenly elongates, and except that he is very clean 
to the angle of his neck, he is thoroughly feathered in his 
outline. His coat generally parts down the back, and 
this parting is continued to the end of his tail. His hind 
legs are close-coated from the hock, and his feet all 
round are nearly as free of feather as acat’s. Colour 
and coats, ro points. 
The stern is long and bushy, usually slightly turned on 
one side, and carried in a trailing fashion. The gait is 
rather loose and waddling, but this is a defect owing to 
the slackness of loin. Carriage, 5; stern, 5. In height 
this dog is sometimes 33 or 34 in., averaging 29 or 30. 
The St. Bernard Dog has been so well described 
by an experienced hand'in the “ed newspaper, that I 
extract his account verbatim :-— 
“ About the year 962, Bernard de Meuthon built two 
‘ hospitia? one on Mont Joux, where a temple of Jupiter 
stood—constructing his hospice from the ruins of the 
temple ; the other on the road that leads over the Grison 
Alps at Colonne Joux, so named from a column dedicated 
to the same heathen deity. The benevolent builder 
presided over both Aosfitia for forty years, and left to his 
monks the duty of affording refuge to travellers, and 
searching for those who were lost in the snow. St. 
Bernard’s portrait, and that of his dog on the same panel, 
is still in existence, and the dog appears to be a blood- 
hound. The Hospice of St. Bernard Pass stands 7,668 
feet above the sea level, and is undoubtedly the highest 
inhabited spot in Europe. Nine months in the year the 
snow is thick on the ground, and in the very worst part 
of winter from 1,500 to 2,090 of the poor inhabitants of 
