The St. Bernard. 145 
it is, I think, who attributes the habit, noticeable in the 
domestic dog, of turning round several times before lying 
down, to a survival of the instinct of his wild ancestor in 
thus trampling the grass to form a bed. Dr. Bessels never 
saw an Eskimo dog do this, which tends to confirm the 
explanation given; for, during the greater part of the year 
the Arctic ancestor of this dog would find no grass to 
trample. 
The sledge driver often has a lively time with his team 
—as when they all start off in hot chase of a reindeer or 
hare, or when a free fight takes place, and harness, men, 
sledge, and dogs become mingled in inextricable confusion. 
In some parts of the Arctic regions, they are driven with 
the whip; in others, the driver throws out a piece of wood 
attached to a thong on the side from which they are to 
turn. A pilot dog is sometimes sent on ahead to lead the 
way over thin or treacherous ice, and the team follow him 
implicitly. Their intelligence is shown by their spreading 
out when they come to dangerous places, in order to dis- 
tribute their weight. Dr. Bessels, finding it impossible once 
to urge his team along with the whip over some yielding 
snow, sent a man ahead trailing a red herring by a string, 
and the eagerness of the dogs to get at the prize enabled 
him to make good progress. The life of these wretched crea- 
tures is an endless struggle with perpetual hunger and ill- 
treatment. Their masters cannot afford to feed them, and 
there is no appeal except to the whip. Some tribes, like 
the Alaskans, have no regular driving cries, but endeavour 
to manage the team by a storm of various oaths, uttered 
promiscuously just as they come to mouth. 
Few, it may be supposed, will hesitate to place the St. 
Bernard in the highest rank among dogs, for size, beauty, 
and intelligence, in which he has, perhaps, no competitor, 
except the Newfoundland. The St. Bernard first appears in 
history with the foundation (in 4.D. 962) of the famous Mo- 
nastery on the Alps; but what his origin was, it would be 
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