146 The Carnivora. 
vain now to inquire. The breed, however, probably can claim 
a very ancient lineage, for it differs so greatly from any 
lupine type. It may, confined as it is to the Alpine re- 
gion, be a direct descendant of the dogs with which the 
builders of the lake habitations guarded their flocks and 
herds; for so powerful an animal must, at one time, have 
performed duties of a more belligerent character than those 
assigned to him by the kindly monks. : 
Naturally, perhaps, a good deal of harmless superstition 
has gathered around these fine animals. The monks think 
very: highly of the white line running up the face, meeting 
a white band round the neck, simulating, in a rough way, 
the badge of their order—the piece of lace worn round their 
own necks, extending down the back, to the waist, and round 
the body. These dogs often possess, in an exaggerated degree, 
that peculiarly ugly, useless, and troublesome appendage, the 
supplementary hind toe, the representative of the suppressed 
great toe, called the “dew-claw,” which may even be double. 
This appears occasionally in every breed, though, I believe, 
it is never seen in wild species. Why it should be deemed 
a beauty and an essential “point,” one cannot understand, 
except on the principle that fanciers are apt to disregard 
natural history in the arbitrary standards of perfection they 
set up and straightway proceed to bow down to. Thus, 
in a letter, dated 1867, from Etienne Metroz, C.R., of the 
Hospice of Great St. Bernard, the monk says: “As to the 
dew-claws, we are convinced that if one meets a dog bearing 
the name of a St. Bernard without having double dew-claws 
—we are convinced, I assert, that one of its ancestors was 
not of the true race.” 
This may pass as a matter of taste; but when we are 
gravely told that the dew-claw is a distinct evidence of 
purity of breed, because it is of so much use to the dog 
in supporting him on the snow over which he travels, any- 
one possessed of the most elementary acquaintance with ana- 
tomy must smile. In answer to a question addressed to 
