The Iceland Dog.
The head is rounder than that of the northern dogs; the ears partly erect and partly pendent; and the fur soft and long, especially behind the fore legs and on the tail. It much resembles the Turkish dog removed to a colder climate.
This dog is exceedingly useful to the Icelanders while travelling over the snowy deserts of the north. By a kind of intuition he rarely fails in choosing the shortest and the safest course. He also is more aware than his master of the approach of the snow storms; and is a most valuable ally against the attack of the Polar bear, who, drifted on masses of ice from the neighbouring continent, often commits depredations among the cattle, and even attacks human beings. When the dog is first aware of the neighbourhood of the bear, he sets up a fearful howl, and men and dogs hasten to hunt down and destroy the depredator.
The travelling in Iceland is sometimes exceedingly dangerous at the beginning of the winter. A thin layer of snow covers and conceals some of the chasms with which that region abounds. Should the traveller fall into one of them, the dog proves a most useful animal; for he runs immediately across the snowy waste, and, by his howling, induces the traveller's friends to hasten to his rescue.
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