Page:Monthly scrap book, for July.pdf/19

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SCRAP BOOK.
19

as a traveller is near, they invariably smell him out, and lead the domestic to him, who is furnished with bread and wine to revive him. Sometimes a dog is sent out alone to find the lost and shivering Pilgrim, with bread and wine in a basket tied to his neck. The number of lives saved in this manner is incredible. Last winter an old man was found quite frozen, and was restored to life. Two other men had been carried away by an avalanche and would undoubtedly have perished; but for these good Samaritan monks and their humane dogs. One single dog has saved the lives of five persons; his name is Jupiter; and there are four others whose names are Lion, Turk, Pallas; and Castor. We had them called to us that we might caress them, for they are good-natured and generous animals. They live upon a sour kind of soup made on purpose for them. They are called the Dogs of St. Bernard. Their fame is spread throughout the world, and pictures of them are multiplied.—

One of them, who had saved twelve or thirteen persons, was stuffed after his death, and is now at Berne. One of the Monks pointed out to us several spots where the dogs had discovered frozen travellers, and had rescued them. One place, in particular, he showed where they had discovered a peasant's family perishing in the snow; upon seeing which, one of these noble animals contrived to take up an infant and place it on his back, and then hastened home to the Monastery to fetch persons who might rescue the unhappy parents. The story affected us almost to tears. I saw, at Paris, a