Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1900 — OUR CANINE FRIENDS. [ARTICLE]

OUR CANINE FRIENDS.

There are over GOO proverbs in the English language relating to dogs. Shepherd dogs used in caring for sheep are not taxed in Great Brjtain. In a bone cave in South England there was found in 18GT the fossil skull of a bulldog. The greyhounds of the Deecnn and Persia have hair as long as that of tho shepherd dog. The Buansuali of Nepaul is a peculiar xvild dog, believed to be a cross between the xvolf and jackal. Beagles xvere formerly used in England for hare-hunting, and though slow they xvere very sure. Cornelius Agrippa had a dog so smart that it was generally believed that the animal was an incarnated spirit. According to the Mosaic law, the price of a dog xvas uot alloxvcd to be brought into the treasury as an offering. Iu ISG2 a dog at Metz xvas by accident locked up for thirty-nine days xvithout food or xvater, and recovered from this long fast. A peculiar-Maltese spaniel sometimes represented on the Roman monuments Is mentioned by Strabo as the “Canis Melitaeus.” The Alpine, or St. Bernard, is believed by some naturalists to be a vari ety of spaniel, while others consider It a descendant of the Newfoundland. A dog has in his upper Jaw six Incisors, txvo canines and six molars on each side; in the lower, six Incisors, two canines nnd seven molars on each side. On the oldest monument of Egypt, executed over 5,000, and perhaps nearly H,OOO, years ago, there are representations of dogs closely resembling thoss now existing In that country.