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National Geographic : 1919 Mar
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE WORK OF DOGS IN TIIE WAR It would not be fair to close this article without brief mention of the splendid work performed by dogs on the battle fields of Europe. From the very beginning of the war, dogs have had a paw in it. When the Germans invaded Belgium the harness dogs, which up to that time had been used for hauling milk, vegetables, and other produce, began to assist the refugees in getting their children and household goods out of the invaded territory. Since then they have hauled light artillery, and carts laden with blankets, bread, hay, and scores of other things for the comfort of soldiers and their horses. They have done sentry duty in the trenches and, with their masters, patrol duty out on No Man's Land, their acute senses often making them aware of the approach of an enemy long before an un assisted man could have detected it. They have carried dispatches through barb-wire entanglements and amid the hail of bullets, and in neat baskets strapped to their backs have delivered homing pigeons intended to carry mes sages for longer distances. But perhaps the greatest service they have rendered has been in connection with the Red Cross, especially in the French and German armies. A part of their work has been to find the wounded after a battle. It is well known that when a man is wounded, usually one of his first thoughts is to get out of the way of the bullets and the shells, and if he has strength he will crawl to some comparatively safe place, often a place where it would be difficult for a man to find him, especially at night. Later, perhaps, he will be too weak to crawl out again or even to cry for help, and in many cases he would be lost if it were not for the dogs. Keen of scent, these animals are not dependent on eyesight or hearing, and one of them will probably find him. If it does it will take his cap or something else belonging to him and hurry back to the lines and presently return with stretcher-bearers, who will carry the poor fellow in to receive the best attention possible. Other dogs, each with a big can of hot soup strapped to either side, are sent through the front-line trenches to carry this cheering fare to the fighting men. Many of the dogs have been mentioned in the dispatches, a number have been decorated for bravery or distinguished service, and many, many more have done their bit, the biggest bit it is possible to do, and gone without a whimper where the best men and the best dogs go. OUR COMMON DOGS BY Louis AGASSIZ FUERTES AND ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES With Illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes HE dog is a species without known beginning, and of all man's de pendent animals the most variable in size, form, coat, and color. Further more, no breed as we now know can be considered a species, as any dog may breed with any other and produce fertile offspring, which in itself is the very defi nition of a species. The great plasticity of the present-day dog is due, of course, to this fact, and no other one of man's domestic animals (excepting possibly chickens) presents the range of possibility and the readiness with which new "varieties" may be pro duced and stabilized. Thus, up to 1885 the well-known and justly popular Aire dale was a nondescript and variable ter rier of the lowly poacher-simply a clever, faithful, and dependable mongrel. Today no breed demands a more exact ing set of requirements nor meets them so generally! The illustrator's problem in preparing 201
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