DOGS OF ST. BERNARD PASS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 175, 28 August 1909, Page 3

DOGS OF ST. BERNARD PASS.

The most famous of the life-saving' dogs. of the great St. .Bernard hospice was whoso monument has the inscription: "Barry the heroic. Saved the lives ol forty persons and was killed by the forty-iirst. ? On one occasion, writes Father Darbellay in the Wide World Magazine, Barry found a child ten years old lying .11 inc snow under the latul s.umoer which precedes death. The dog wanned the chiid with its breath and thn loused it from sleep by licking it. This much accomplished, Barry by lying down on his side gave the child an obvious Invitation to get upon his back and ride. The child did so, and was thus carr : cd to the monastery. Barry was killed by some unknown person, probably in mistake.

The training of the animals is a very simple matter. During the summer months some of the assistants at th# monastery take the young dogs out into the valleys or hollows, where is always suow. One man will go and, ise down in the snow aud bury himself m it, and then a dog is sent to look for him. The animal ie taught to bark when lie has found him, and also •") rouse the man up if he is asleep. When the man wakes up and stands on his feet the dog leads him to the hosp;cc, running along in front to show him the way.

"The animals frequently remain out on the mountains searching for lo«t travellers for fifteen, eighteen, and even twenty-four hours at a stretch," writes Pather Darbellay. "On one occasion vve went down the pass to seek some travellers who we knew could not possibly find their way, as it was snowing hard, bitterly cold, and very dark. We had three dogs with us aud sent them on ahead. Presently we heard one barking. I hastened in the direction of the sound, and there found the animal pawing away in the snow. I knew someone was buried there, and, pushing away the snow with our hands, we soon came across the body of a man. We gave him some wine and biscuits. Hearing another dog barking, I was hastening away when the animal that had found the individual mentioned gripped me by the coat and pulled me over in the snow. I wondered what was .he matter and got up quickly, discovering, with the aid of a lantern, that I was on the brink of a precipice; the dog had saved me from stepping over to my death. On this particular hunt we found eight persons, including one woman ,;iud a little child. The latter was very weak and ill. One of the brethren removed his outer coat, wrapped the child in it, tied it to the back of on" of the dogs, and sent it off to the hospice." j The famous hospice was founded in| the year 002 by Bernard de Mcnthonj a neighboring nobleman, for the benefit of pilgrims journeying-to Rome. Fori many years after it was erected it was I continually being attacked by bands of j : Tobbcrs who infested the mountains. | In those days the brave monks were I compelled at times to barricade thel doors of their stronghold and wait uufcil j , the weather drove the besiegers away; i before they dared venture forth. Once it was destroyed by fire. It was here that Napoleon was entertained when Vi took his army over the Alps into Itaiy, in the spring of ISOO. One hundred and ; eighty of his soldiers held the pass fori a year. Ilis army numbered 30,000 men, and for mile 6 they had to fight j their way, fo6t by foot, waist deep h snow. Napoleon converted the hospice .into barracks, aiid the great room where travellers are now sheltered was turned into a liu&e hospital ward.

There is one room in the hospice which always makes' the traveller arriving for the first time shudder and turn away. This is the morgue. Through the low latticed bars of the window one can gaze at the dead within. The keen air, sweeping from end to' end, preserves the poor relics of humanity for years in a semi-mummified condition, and unless they are identified there they remain. At the present time there arc some twenty bodies in< the morgue, one of which is said to have been there fifty years. The gruesomeness of the sight is enhanced by the fact that each body is strapped to a board and placed in an upright position, where it remains until identified.