"The Mastiff in Spain, where, in my opinion, its race has been most improved, is large, the fore and hind feet very strong, the hair short, and the head a little pointed* With an iron collar around his neck, having pointed nails in it, he is enabled to hunt and kill the wolf. The Spaniards consider this race of dogs the most useful, the most noble, and the most courageous of any other. He never loses his self-possession, nor forgets the voice of bis master, to whom he is always very obedient He is principally employed in tending the herds of cattle, and, more particularly, the flocks of sheep. Two shepherds, with one ass, and two dogs, are strong enough to mind a flock of 1000 sheep, and to walk five miles a day when travelling from the north to the south of Spain. They make known to the shepherds those which are tired. They drive back to the flock those that go astray; give notice when any are delivered of young, that the shepherds may have the lamb put on the ass; and watch that no dangerous animals approach the flock. At night the shepherds form a ring, by means of stakes driven in the ground, and ropes passing from one to the other, into which the flock is driven; the dogs watching that the sheep be not stolen, by constantly walking round the ring.

"They are very friendly and faithful to their masters They are very fond of accompanying them when they go on horseback, keeping always a gun-shot ahead, and, by barking, giving them notice of any danger, and no turning to the side of the horse to defend them. He eats very plentifully of every thing, and is considered indispensable to those who economize personal labour on large estates, one dog being considered equal to two men for guarding the flock."

Puppies, or dogs already trained, can be had, via Havana and Santander. I had, in 1832, a male and female already trained and grown. The female died of the great heat, without leaving any breed; the dog was the best watch-dog I have ever known.

I believe the expenses, as far as Havana, would not be less than $70 or $80; coming under a bill of lading as merchandise. M. Martinez del Campo tells me, he has an uncle in Spain, who is a great sheep-raiser; and that in a letter he had from him some time ago, speaking of his farm and flocks, and loss of sheep, that the greatest stress was laid on the fact of his having lost six dogs; that was, he considered, the sum total of his misfortunes.

There is a story related of an English Mastiff (which had been crossed with the stag and blood hound), who in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, - when Lord Buckhurst was ambassador at the court of Charles IX.,- alone and unassisted, successively engaged a bear, a leopard, and a lion; and pulled them all down. The colour of the English Mastiff is usually a deeper or lighter buff, with dark muzzle and ears. One, the property of the 23d regiment, measured 29 1/2 inches in height at the shoulder. " The care of these dogs in watching, is well known; and the cool attention they have evinced in walking by the side of a nightly thief - forbidding his laying his hands upon any article, yet abstaining from doing him any bodily harm, and suffering his escape over the walls, is sufficiently attested."

Scott testifies to the utility of this dog in Scotland, and gives a touching picture of his fidelity, where, in Marmion, he paints the awful snow-storm, beginning, the reader may remember, with the lines - "When red hath set the beamless sun, Through heavy vapours, dark and don; When the tired ploughman, dry and warm, Hears, half asleep, the rising storm, Hurling the hail and eleeted rain, Against the casement's tinkling pane: The sounds that drive wild deer and fox To shelter in the brake and rocks, Are warnings which the shepherd ask To dismal and to dangerous task."

Driven abroad to face the tempest and to save his flock, the shepherd is made to call, not on the tired ploughman, nor the lordly owner, for assistance; rather in his faithful dogs he puts his trust,

" Whistling, and cheering them to aid,. Around his back, he wreathes his plaid;" and when at last he is overwhelmed by the violence of the storm, and sinks to perish in the snow, the fine picture, with a pencil ever true to nature, is finished with a sketch of "poor Yarrow," as he "Crouches upon his master's breast, And licks his cheek to break his rest"

Opulent men, especially if farmers, ought to import, at once, the genuine Mastiff, the Pyrenean and the common-Shepherd's dog, and other animals likely to be useful to the country. In the lifetime of General Stephen Van Rehsellaer, and the late Robert Oliver, a hint from any respected quarter was all that was necessary, and the order was given, cost what it might Not for their own, but for the benefit of society,, the examples of such men should be held up for universal admiration and their memories be cherished gratefully and for ever.. What More honourable disposition can be made, with a portion of his means, by him who is blessed with abundance? The best sort of benefactor is he who adds one more to Our stock of good fruits, vegetables, or domestic fowls or animals. Why does not some one, possessing the facilities for doing it, import the Mexican domesticated pheasant? and the barn-door fowl from China, which Mr. Cushing says is nearly as large as our turkey 1

Professing only to give brief sketches of the characteristics and uses of the several breeds of dogs referred to, we had closed what we bad to say of the one devoted to the purposes of the shepherd, when, fortunately receiving, by the kindness of the editor, the third volume of that valuable journal, the American Agriculturist, we there found the following communication. It confirms, if confirmation had been needed, what had been said of the manner of rearing the Shepherd's dog in South America, besides giving interesting details in proof of the prodigious sagacity and great value of that particular race.

We extract the following information from the work mentioned,

"Although Mr. Kendall and some other writers have described this wonderful animal as a cross of the Newfoundland dog, such, I think, cannot be the fact; on the contrary, I have no doubt he is a genuine descendant of the Alpine Mastiff, or more properly, Spanish shepherd-dog introduced by them at the time of the conquest He is only to be found in the sheep-raising districts of New Mexico. The other Mexican dogs, which number more than a thousand to one of these noble animals, are the results of a cross of every thing under the sun having any affinity to the canine race, and even of a still nobler class of animals, if Mexican stories are to be credited. It is believed in Mexico, that the countless mongrels of that country owe their origin to the assistance of the various kinds of wolves, .mountain cats, lynxes, and to almost if not every four-footed, class of carnivorous animals. Be this as it may, those who have not seen them can believe as much as they like; but eye-witnesse* can assert, that there never was a country blessed with a greater and more abundant variety of miserable, snarl* ing, cowardly packs, than the mongrel dogs of Mexico. That country of a surety would be the plague-spot of this beautiful world, were it not for the redeeming character of the truly noble shepherd-dog, endowed as it is with almost human intellect. I have often thought, when observing the sagacity of this animal, that if very many of the human race possessed one half of the powers of inductive reasoning which seems to be the gift of this animal, that it would be far better for themselves and for their fellow-creatures.