24 The Dog Book 



ing brief explanatory text say that one is something of the turnspit order, 

 another collie-like, and the third somewhat like a bulldog or pug, these 

 being presumably the three types they recognised. 



From our investigations at the Museum of Natural History we found 

 a good deal beyond that unsatisfactory summarising, and the information 

 made the lack of dates the more to be regretted. There are two complete 

 dog mummies, unswathed and put in a sleeping position. They are very 

 much dried out, particularly the larger one, which is in "poor condition," 

 to borrow a dog-shower's phrase. The first examined was apparently 

 undershot — at any rate we made the memorandum in our notebook " ( i} 

 undershot," and this prior to having seen " Necropolis of Ancon." The 

 query was used because of the doubt as to whether the extremity of the 

 nose had not shrivelled up in drying out and caused the retroussi shape. 

 The teeth were exceedingly large and the dog must have been a hard- 

 fighting customer, if his pluck was in keeping with his teeth. The head 

 was of ordinary size to suit the dog, which, to judge from the measure- 

 ment of eight inches from elbow to extremity of toes, would make him 

 out a dog of about thirteen inches at the shoulder and probably weighing 

 about twenty or twenty-two pounds. The coat on this dog was very much 

 plain "yellow," with but little if any red in the colour. It was short on the 

 head, ears and legs, and ran to an inch and a half on the body and had 

 a harsh, stiff feeling. The tail was tucked between the hind legs, but 

 was plainly shown as far as the hocks, and was club- or wolf-like in 

 shape with longer hair than on the body, and from its shape it was prob- 

 ably carried down. The ears were small and with forward-falling tips like 

 a collie's. Whether that was their original position in life is a question it 

 is not possible to answer definitely. They looked natural enough and very 

 neatly carried. It is more likely that they were button ears like a fox- 

 terrier's than pricked and now broken down. The skuU measurements 

 were two inches from nose to eye, and the same from corner of eye to ear. 



Mummy number two was so large as to force the question as to its 

 being a dog. The evidence was forthcoming in a disjointed leg-bone and 

 foot, which quite settled the matter. The fore-legs could not be measured, 

 nor the head, but the leg-bone detached and minus the foot was good six 

 inches and the shank-bone was also six inches — a rather peculiar proportion, 

 for a six-inch shank-bone is more in keeping with the lower leg-bone of 

 some four inches. This dog must have been eighteen inches at the shoulder. 



