ss, and
greatly to be feared.' We might adduce the songs of Ossian, where the
epithets 'hairy-footed,' 'white-breasted,' and 'bounding,' are
singularly characteristic of some of the striking peculiarities of the
dog in question, and strangely coincide with the descriptions
furnished by other writers respecting him. Mac Pherson must, at all
events, have been at the pains of considerable research if he actually
forged the beautiful poems, which he put forth to the world under
Ossian's name. The word 'Bran,' the name given to Fingal's noble
hound, employed by others than Ossian, is Celtic, and signifies
'Mountain Torrent,' implying that impetuosity of course and headlong
courage which the dog possessed. I have said that many assert the
Irish wolf-dog to be no longer in existence. I have ventured a denial
of this, and refer to the wolf-dog or deer-dog of the Highlands of
Scotland, as his actual and faithful living representative. Perhaps I
am wrong in saying representative. I hold that the Irish wolf-dog and
the Highland deer-dog are one and the same, and I now proceed to cite
a few authorities in support of my position.

"The Venerable Bede, as well as the Scotch historian John Major,
informs us that Scotland was originally peopled from Ireland under the
conduct of Renda, and that one half of Scotland spoke the Irish
language as their mother-tongue. Many persons, also, are doubtless
aware that, even at this present time, the Gaelic and Erse are so much
alike, that a Connaught man finds no difficulty in comprehending and
conversing with a Highlander. Scotland also was called by the early
writers Scotia Minor, and Ireland, Scotia Major. The colonization,
therefore, of Scotland from Ireland admits of little doubt. As the
Irish wolf-dog was at that time in the enjoyment of his most extended
fame, it was not to be expected that the colonists would omit taking
with them such a fine description of dog, and which would prove so
useful to them in a newly established settlement, and that, too, at a
period when hunting was not merely an amusement, but one of their main
occupations, and also their main source of subsistence. The Irish
wolf-dog was thus carried into Scotland, and became the Highland or
Scottish wolf-dog, changing in process of time his name with his
country; and when wolves disappeared from the land, his occupation was
that of deer-hunting, and thus his present name.

"In Ireland the wolves were in existence longer t