Early History of the Dog 9 



latitude dogs, as is evident from the fact that Prince Andrew Shirinsky 

 ShihmatofF divides the varieties found in the Russian Empire into no less 

 than ten divisions. In 1896 he published for the benefit of a Moscow 

 charitable institution an album full of beautiful reproductions of the various 

 divisions of what he called Laikas. The copy we have seen had an intro- 

 duction in English, but there was no description of the various varieties or 

 of the photographs beyond the name of the variety. In the introduction 

 Prince Shihmatoff stated that he had purchased hundreds of the Laikas from 

 all over the empire and studied them carefully, with the result that he gave 

 names to eleven species — in European Russia, the Finno, Korel, Lapland, 

 Cheremiss, Zorian, and Vogool; and in Siberia the Samoyed, Ostiah, Bash- 

 kir, Tunguse, and Chootch. All possessed the same general characteristics 

 which we would, call Eskimo — that is, the dense coat, erect ears and tightly 

 curled tail. In many of the photographs the tail was not so curled, but that 

 is not an unusual thing in dogs standing. Any hound almost, when it 

 stands, will drop its stern, but raise it at once to the conventional hound 

 position when in motion. Not one of these Laikas approached any closer 

 to the wolf than did his close relatives, so that there is a strict dividing line 

 between dog and wolf that nature does not cross. Not alone that, but we 

 do not find wolves attacking each other, nor dogs going on marauding 

 parties against their kin, but between the wolf and the dog the animosity is 

 intense. Journals of Arctic voyages give many instances of wolves attacking 

 the dogs. Captain Parry, in the journal of his second voyage, writes: 

 "A flock of thirteen wolves, the first yet seen, crossed the bay from the 

 direction of the huts and passed the ships. These animals, as we after- 

 ward learned, had accompanied the Eskimos on their journey to the 

 island on the preceding day, and they proved to us the most troublesome 

 part of their suite. These animals were so hungry and fearless as to take 

 away some of the Eskimo dogs in a snow house near the Hecla's stern, 

 though the men were at the time within a few yards of them." He also 

 tells that on one occasion a Newfoundland dog was being enticed to play 

 with some wolves on the ice, and would doubtless have fallen a victim to 

 them had not some of the sailors gone to him and brought him back. Mr. 

 Broke, in his record of Swedish travels, states that during his journey from 

 Tornea to Stockholm he heard everywhere of the ravages committed by 

 wolves. "Not," he says, "upon the human species or the cattle, but 

 chiefly upon the peasants' dogs, considerable numbers of which have been 



