Character of the St. Bernard. 147 
him on the subject by Mr. Hugh Dalziel, the late Charles 
Darwin rightly characterised dew claws as “ accidental mon- 
strosities.” They are, in fact, simply appearances under do- 
mestication of a suppressed or never developed digit (the 
great toe), the corresponding digit (the thumb) being in- 
variably present on the fore limb, and articulated with the 
earpus. Dew claws, having no bony attachment to the tarso- 
metatarsus, and presenting so small a surface, cannot pos- 
sibly bear any of the weight of a heavy dog, or prevent 
him from sinking in the snow. 
With most of us the very name of the St. Bernard is 
suggestive of benevolence, and aid to the lost or weary tra- 
veller. From time immemorial these dogs have been credited 
with displaying the utmost sagacity and interest in their 
work of rescuing travellers passing over the Alps, when the 
road has become obliterated by a snowfall, or they have 
failed to reach the Hospice before night. Railways have now 
practically abolished the pass of St. Bernard, and there is 
no longer any real need for the services of these dogs, of 
whom such extraordinary stories have been told. No lover 
of the dog will doubt any of these accounts without extreme 
reluctance ; but when we find one authority assuring us that 
Barry, who died in 1815, had saved more than seventy-five 
lives during the fifteen years of his existence, and another 
asserting that the number did not much exceed the half 
of that, we are disposed to be somewhat sceptical. 
In her delightful book on “ Village Life in Switzerland,” 
published in 1865, Mrs. 8. D. Delmard deals .a sad blow to 
the romance of my childhood in the following account of 
these dogs, written on the spot. Referring to the popular 
pictures which we all recollect so well, she says: ‘These 
pictures usually represent a dog of colossal proportions, 
standing with one foot on the breast of a traveller, who 
lies insensible and half covered with snow, close to some 
tall pines, of which many more are to be seen higher up 
on the road leading to the Hospice, from which one sees 
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