Until about twelve years ago, this variety of the dog was comparatively unknown in the British Isles, except on canvas. Landseer and Ansdell had repeatedly portrayed the majestic form and benevolent expression which have long been traditionally attached to this breed, and some few specimens have been imported; but their numbers were so small that it was rare to meet with an Englishman who had seen one in this country. About the time above mentioned, however, the Rev. J. Cumming Macdona determined to make the attempt to naturalise the dog here, and, with that view, twice visited the monasteries of St. Bernard and the Simplon, where his enthusiastic efforts were on the first occasion rewarded by the attainment of a dog and bitch, which formed the nucleus of his subsequent large and valuable collection, aided by subsequent additions from other sources. By his unwearied efforts and skill in breeding, the St. Bernard dog has now become so generally diffused throughout Great Britain that thirty or forty specimens are generally exhibited at each of our large shows; and these being the cream of the whole breed, it may easily be imagined that the milk from which it has been skimmed is in abundance.

In the year 1815 the old and true Alpine breed was reduced to so small a number that the monks began to fear it would be exterminated. This result was no doubt due to an accident by which several dogs were destroyed in an avalanche; but it was also to be traced to continued in-breeding causing sterility or such delicacy of constitution as to end in early death. Consequently they determined to introduce a cross with the Newfoundland; but, as this did not answer, they procured a couple of bitches descended from the old strain, yet kept distinct from it, in other kennels, belonging to gentlemen residing in the adjacent valleys. When Mr. Macdona was at the Hospice they had recently obtained a noble dog, named after the celebrated Barry, and resembling him in colour and shape, from M. Schumacher, belonging to a strain of the old breed, but kept in the family of the Baron Youde for half a century. With the aid of this dog, the monks have been able to replenish their kennels, and there appears to be at present no necessity for them to reimport dogs from Mr. Macdona's stock, which he promised to allow them to do, if necessary, when he obtained his first drafts from them.

In 1868 the monks gave Mr. Macdona a bitch puppy by this dog, which he named Hospice. She was rougher in the coat and had more white about her than is approved of on the Alps, and was probably on that account undervalued by them. He also obtained his • Monarque (a smooth-coated dog, brother to Barry), from the Rev. Mr. Dillon, chaplain at Berne, who had him from M. Schumacher in the same year, having previously imported his celebrated rough dogs Tell and Hedwig, brother and sister, bred by M. Schindler, and with a pedigree derived from the original Barry, who died in 1815. Mr. Murchinson has imported Thor from M. Schumacher's kennel, and from the same source Miss Hales' Jura also came. Mr. Stone's Barry and Mr. Tyler's Thunn, said to be bred from a dog at the Hospice, and Mr. Macdona's fine dog Gessler, imported by Capt. Eastwood from Switzerland, but without a pedigree, complete the list of the chief sources of the present extensive collection of dogs spread throughout the length and breadth of the land - a very large proportion of which are descended from those imported by the Rev. J. Cumming Macdona; but of late years the stock of Thor have been in the ascendant, including Mr. Gresham's very strong kennel chiefly composed of Hector, Oscar, The Shah, and Dagmar by this dog, with the addition of Monk by Sir Charles Isham's Leo, but who, like his sire, has too much of the Newfoundland type for my taste.

In this country the St. Bernard dog is only useful as a guard and companion, being in fact chiefly valued for his ornamental qualities, in which his grand head and intelligent expression, coupled with his massive proportions, render him even superior to the bloodhound; though in the case of Hilda, given by Mr. Macdona to Lady Prances Cecil, the St. Bernard has proved a very valuable deerstalker, well known in the forest of Glentannar. In the Alpine snows the rough coat is considered to unfit the dog for the work he has to do; but there is not the same objection to it here; and, as it is far more pictorial in its effect, the rough variety is preferred in England, as represented by Tell, Hedwig, Thor, Gessler, Alp, Hospice, Jura, Hector, Oscar, Chang, and Menthon - the last a very fine black and tan dog imported by Mr. Macdona, without a pedigree, and not showing all the characteristics of the true breed, but still very successful on the show bench, owing to his size and beauty of form and coat.

In order to understand the reason of this preference of the short coat on the Alps, it is necessary to consider the work demanded from the dog. Every morning during the prevalence of the snow-drifts four monks in pairs, each being attended by their servants and a couple of dogs, leave the Hospice at eight o'clock, and descend the mountain, one pair on each side. The dogs run on in front, often having to clear the path of the snow, and enabled by their instinct and nose to keep to it without danger of falling into the drifts, which are not cognisable by the eye. For six hours the party daily remain out, continuing their search for travellers bewildered and lost, the dogs in stormy weather keeping up a loud barking, which is of course easily followed, and serves to instil hope even into the breast of the dying. Stone refuges are built at various spots, and these are regularly visited, and their inmates, if any, delivered from death, which inevitably follows on long exposure to the cold of these regions.

In their arduous struggles to reach these stations, the rough-coated dogs become matted with icicles, the weight of which seriously interferes with their efforts; and, as in the case of the over-coated colley, experience teaches that where active work is to be done, a short coat is the best. Sometimes the dog is required to follow a lost traveller by the scent which he crosses, and for this purpose a keen nose is necessary, and there is plenty of evidence that it is well developed. • Mr. Macdona's Tell (whose portrait illustrates the rough strain described in this article), once tracked his master for sixteen miles in the snow, in which his intelligence was taxed severely to ascertain the mode in which the Mersey had been crossed, the scent failing him at the pier. Watching the various steamers as they came alongside, he visited each in succession, until by his nose he discovered the right one; and crossing over in that, and again taking up the scent on the opposite shore, he followed it for ten miles till he reached the object of his persevering search. Most of the St. Bernards will, like the Newfoundland, "fetch and carry; " and, in relation to this habit, an excellent story is told by Mr. Macdona of his dog Sultan, which shows their sagacity in a remarkable manner.

This dog was employed regularly to fetch the daily newspaper from the village, and on one occasion he was engaged in this duty, when a Sunday-school boy, who had been previously allowed to play with him at a school feast, met him, and, presuming on the good temper shown by the dog before, tried to take the paper out of his mouth. Sultan at once quietly dropped the paper, to avoid a struggle, and jumped at the boy's cap, which he took off and held as a ransom for his paper. The boy, objecting to the loss of his cap, quickly made the exchange, and off marched Sultan in triumph with it to his master.