some of the largest dogs of the Newfoundland and Labrador, or Great St. Bernard breeds. Their characteristic form is a round, closely ribbed-up barrel; a well-laid, sloping shoulder, but thick rather than fine, and with little elevation of the withers; a short, thick neck, covered with redundant masses of coarse mane, scarcely inferior to that of the lion; a well-shaped, lean and bony head, wide in the brow and not seldom showing something of the characteristic basin-face of the Arab. The ears are unusually small, erect and well-placed; the eyes large, clear and intelligent. Their loins are superb so that their breadth bears no small proportion to the entire height of the animal. Sway backs and flat sides are unknown to the race. Their quarters are scarcely large in proportion to their other muscular developments, but their legs and feet, which are not so densely matted with hair as would be expected from their flowing tails and abundant manes, are, like those of the Canadians and Normans, to which they have many strong points of similitude, literally made of iron. Splints, curbs, spavins, windgalls, thorough-pins, ringbones and navicular disease seem to be things utterly foreign to the Shetlander. Out of many hundreds which we have seen,—sometimes in droves of fifty or sixty at a time travelling down from their native moors and mountains, the raggedest, rustiest, most comical-looking little quadrupeds eye ever dwelt upon, driven by a gigantic six-foot Highlander, perched on the back perhaps of the smallest of the number,—we never saw a lame Shetlander. Their hardihood and spirit is wonderful. In their native isles they run wild on the hills as the ragged, black-faced sheep, with which they keep company, never herded, sheltered nor fed, but picking up a hardy livelihood from the tender shoots of the heather, and the coarse, innutritious grass which grows among it. In very severe winters, when in that
