269

ALPINE MASTIFF.

Mosr persons in the civilized world have heard of
the dog, or rather of the dogs of St. Bernard, a race
so called from their being reared at the convent of the
Great St. Bernard, and trained to the charitable work
of rescuing travellers, who may have been overtaken
and overpowered by snow-storms, from the certain de-
struction, to which, without the aid of these sagacious
and powerful animals, they would beyond doubt be
exposed.

“One of these noble dogs was decorated with a medal,
in commemoration of his having saved the lives of
twenty-two persons, who but for his sagacity, must have
perished. He was lost in 1816, in an attempt to
convey a poor traveller to his anxious family. The man
was a Piedmontese courier, who arrived at St. Bernard
in a very stormy season, labouring to make his way to
the little village of St. Pierre, in the valley beneath the
mountain, 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, of which
one was the remarkable creature whose services had been
so valuable to mankind. Descending from the convent,
they were in an instant overwhelmed by two avalanches,
and the same common destruction awaited the family
of the poor courier, who were toiling up the mountain
to obtain some news of their expected friend: they all
perished. .

A story is told of one of these dogs, which, having