The Esquimaux dog occupies as wide a geographical range, and includes as much variety, as the human species to whom the term is applied, but also presents throughout its variations certain general and prominent family features.

These are a certain gaunt and wolf-like form and fierceness of expression, the muzzle pointed, ears erect, and eyes more or less oblique, small, and piercing, and the coat dense and deep, the latter to enable them to withstand the intense cold of the northern regions of which they are native.

We have specimens of them occasionally exhibited which we may assume to have been selected as superior to the general run.

We have seen no handsomer than the dog Garry, of which we give an engraving. He has been repeatedly shown in this country, and at the Alexandra Palace exhibition, December, 1878, was described in the catalogue as "an Esquimaux bred in the extreme north of Lombardy."

Mr. C. E. Fryer, whose notice of Garry we reproduce from The Country, entitled him a "North American wolf dog," and we find the idea that these dogs, or at least special varieties of them, are produced by a cross with the wolf rather commonly entertained, but there is no better reason for it than his general wolfish appearance. Garry is decidedly typical of the Esquimaux family of dogs, and on the subject of his breeding we have little to add to our sub-note to Mr. Fryer's letter at the time it first appeared.

Mr. Fryer says: "The accompanying engraving represents one of these curious dogs, which are so much prized by the natives and inhabitants of North America, and so difficult to obtain in this country. The cut is taken from a photograph of a dog lately owned by a member of Oxford University, who gave me the following account of it: Garry, the dog in question, is about eighteen months old, and has been in this country seven months. He was brought from the Saskatchewan Mountains, Manitoba, in the far north-west of Canada. The following are the dimensions of this handsome dog: Height at shoulder, 2ft. 6in.; length from centre between shoulder blades to centre between ears, 1ft.; from latter point to end of nose, 11in.; length from shoulders to setting on of tail, 2ft. 7in.; length of tail, lft. 4in.; measurement round head just behind ears, 2ft.; just above eyes, lft. 8in.; at point of nose, 10in.; his girth measured fairly tight, not outside the hair, 3ft.; his weight is 8st. 81b. His hair is long, straight, and pure white, which is his chief beauty.

The Indians take great pride in rearing a pure white wolf dog, and when they manage to secure one they have a feast in his honour, called the ' Feast of the White Dog.' I refrain from attempting the native names, lest I should display my own ignorance and do some damage to my readers' jaws. Garry is said to be the produce of an Esquimaux bitch, crossed nine times by a prairie wolf. The Indians chain up the Esquimaux mothers in the neighbourhood of the wolves, to whose kind attentions they leave them. The dog Garry has travelled many thousand miles over the snow, drawing a sleigh, and is quite tame, following his master closely through the streets without chain or muzzle. Sometimes he is treated to this latter sign of ' civilisation,' under which he is very patient, though he continually endeavours to free himself from it. His food is plain dog biscuit, which he eats without complaint, though at first he ate raw meat ravenously. His master, however, finding his blood was getting too hot, gradually reduced him to one meal per day of dog biscuits. He is very tractable and docile, and but for his enormous size would not give any idea of ferocity.

His eyes are very small, and of a pale yellow colour.

MR. J. ANGELL'S NORTH AMERICAN WOLF DOG "GARRY" (K.C.S.B. 8798). Imported.

"The long thick tail, the pointed head, and short pointed ears seem unmistakably to show the wolf blood in the dog, and his general appearance shows his descent. His mouth would easily take in a man's leg, and his teeth are a caution to dentists. Whether he feels flattered by being told that we are possessors of developed ' canine ' teeth I can't say.

"His owner tells me he does not bark, but utters a low growl when enraged, and at night howls piteously.

"The dog was entered for exhibition at the last Birmingham dog show, 1876, where he was awarded a special prize."

The mystic story of Garry's birth and parentage is very charming, but I fear the talismanic number nine would alone be fatal to it, as it is decidedly suspicious; and in these days of Kennel Stud Books we get awfully sceptical of unauthenticated pedigrees, and in such matters positively refuse as evidence the traditions of the Red Man, however pretty and romantic. I saw Garry in the flesh at Birmingham - where, by the way, he took a £5 prize - and I must pronounce him the very finest specimen of an Esquimaux dog I have seen, but I must differ from our esteemed correspondent when he says there is unmistakeable evidence of wolf blood in the dog. Dogs appear to approach nearer to the wolf type the farther they are removed from the higher civilised life of man, and that, I think, is the case with Garry, and, besides that, hybrids do not breed. The measurements cannot have been accurately taken; and Mr. Fryer must have been misinformed as to Garry's sleigh drawing, if we may judge by his age.

Among those exhibited in this country, the best specimens I have seen are Zouave, shown by Mr. W. Arkwright, and Mr. W. K. Taunton's Sir John Franklin and Zoe.

Zouave I have understood was imported from Greenland, and Sir John Franklin, the finest exhibited, was brought over in the Pandora. As they are now being bred by one or two gentlemen in this country we may, in a few years, see more of them.

Mr. Taunton describes his Esquimaux as intelligent and of amiable disposition, and the following is his description of them: