^ CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDEE 5. CARNIVORA. 20T 
him ; and then, when he pauses from fatigue or uncertainty with regard to the path he shoukl 
pursue, his limbs are speedily benumbed. Fatal slumbers, which he cannot shake off^ steal upon 
him, and he crouches under some ledge, and sleeps to wake no more. The snow drifts on. It is 
almost continually falling, and he is soon concealed from all human help. 
On the top of Mount St. Bernard, and near one of the most dangerous of these passes, is a con- 
vent, in which is preserved a breed of large dogs trained to search for the benighted and frozen 
wanderer. Every night, and particularly when the wind blows tempestuously, some of these 
dogs are sent out. They traverse every path about the mountains, and their scent is so exquisite 
that they can discover the traveler, although he may lie many feet deep in the snow. Having 
found him, they set to work and endeavor to scrape away the snow, uttering a deep bark that re- 
verberates from rock to rock, and tells those who are watching in the convent that some poor 
wretch is in peril. Generally, a little flask of spirits is tied round the neck of the animal, by 
drinking which the benighted traveler may recruit his strength, until more effectual help arrives. 
The monks hasten in the direction of the sound, and often succeed in rekindling the vital spark 
before it is quite extinguished. Ycry many travelers have been thus rescued from death by these 
benevolent men and their intelligent and interesting quadruped servants. 
One of these Bernardine dogs, named Barry, had a medal tied round his neck as a badge of 
honorable distinction, for he had saved the lives of forty persons. He at length died nobly in his 
vocation. A Piedmontese courier arrived at St, Bernard on a very stormy day, laboring to make 
his way to the little village of St. Pierre, in the valley beneath the moxmtain, where his wife and 
children lived. It was in vain that the monks attempted to check his resolution to reach his 
family. They at last gave him two guides, each of whom was accompanied by a dog, one of 
which was the remarkable creature whose services had been so valuable. Descendino- from the 
convent, they were overwhelmed by two avalanches or heaps of falling snow, and the same de- 
struction awaited the family of the poor courier, who were traveling up the mountain in the hope 
of obtaining some news of the husband and father. 
THE NEWP0T7NDLASD DOG. 
The Newfoundland Do a, C, f. Terrce JVovce, originated in the island which has given it 
uame, and is probably derived from a cross of a dog carried thither by the English settlers and a 
native breed. These animals are of large size, and in almost every part of British America they 
