152 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
through part of the Himala Mountains, has confounded 
them with other breeds. He frequently mentions the 
dogs of Bischur, of whose strength and activity wonder- 
ful tales were told, but always with an air of incredulity 
both as to their size and powers. This circumstance 
would lead us to suspect that he had never seen the 
genuine breed, and our suspicions are strongly con- 
firmed by those passages in his work in which he 
incidentally touches upon their distinctive characters ; 
for it is clear that a dog " not bigger than a pointer," 
although " rough-haired and very fierce," could never 
have been mistaken for a Thibet Dog by one who was 
acquainted with the legitimate race. 
Our specimens were larger in size than any English 
Mastiff that we have seen. Their colour was a deep 
black, slightly clouded on the sides ; their feet and a 
spot over each eye alone being of a full tawny or bright 
brown. They had the broad short truncated muzzle of 
the Mastiff, and lips still more deeply pendulous. In 
fact, there appeared throughout a general looseness of 
the skin ; a circumstance which M. Desmarest has 
pointed out as characteristic of his " Dogue du Thi- 
bet," of which, however, he gives no particular descrip- 
tion. It is, we have no doubt, the same animal; but 
we know not whence his scanty information respecting 
it was derived. 
