,The St. Bernard Dog 581 



but, with the single exception of type of head, they equalled the English dogs 

 in no particular. We mean, of course, that the best English beat the best 

 Swiss, and not that all the English beat all the Swiss. That would be a 

 little too much to accomplish. There was a houndiness about many of the 

 Swiss dogs that was certainly not St. Bernard type: and the only successes 

 of consequence which they had later on were in smooth classes where com- 

 petition was poor and few English dogs were shown. The St. Bernard in 

 England is of interest to Americans only in the way of importations, and 

 those who wish to go more deeply into that sectional history will find their 

 wants supplied by Dalziel's " The St. Bernard. " 



There is a possibility that General Lafayette was the first person to 

 send any St. Bernards to this country. When he returned to the United 

 States in 1824 he apparently met Mr. J. F. Skinner, who at one time was 

 Assistant Postmaster General and afterwards edited the American Farmer, 

 The Sporting Magazine, and other publications. At one time he seemed 

 to have been very much interested in getting good sheep dogs and in this 

 he was aided by General Lafayette who previous to 1830, as near as we can 

 judge, sent him two French sheep dogs and at another time sent two dogs 

 which Mr. Skinner described as " Pyrenean or St. Bernard " dogs and tells 

 of the use made of them at the Hospice. As Mr. Skinner was evidently get- 

 ting sheep dogs it is more probable that these were Pyrenean sheep dogs. 

 Yet as he particularly mentioned the French Sheep dogs as having pointed 

 faces, the others not being so described were likely broader faced and were 

 halfbred dogs akin to the St. Bernards. There is still another possibility 

 that General Lafayette may have known of the monks getting outside crosses 

 a few years before and may have stated it in such a way as to lead Mr. 

 Skinner to assume that they were one and the same breed or bred the same 

 way and thus give the dogs he received the double name. After Gen. 

 Lafayette's death Mr. Skinner had some correspondence with his son re- 

 garding further importations of sheep dogs and he was evidently on a 

 friendly footing with both Lafayettes. 



At the very first New York show there were St. Bernards, for which two 

 classes were provided, long-coated and short-coated being the two divisions. 

 The winners in roughs were two somewhat ancient specimens of seven and 

 a half and eight years. In the smooth division two youngsters that became 

 better known later were second and third, behind one of Dan Foster's picked- 

 up dogs. These puppies were Miss Pearsall's Fino, almost invariably 



