twenty-nine degrees below zero, whilst sixty-eight degrees
Fahrenheit is about the highest range ever attained in summer. From
the extreme difficulty of respiration, few of the monks ever survive
the period of their vow, which is fifteen years, commencing at the age
of eighteen.

This hospice is said to have been first founded in the year 962, by
Bernard, a Piedmontese nobleman. It will be remembered that it was
over this pass Napoleon, in May, 1800, led an army of thirty thousand
men into Italy, having with them heavy artillery and cavalry.

For poor travellers and traders the hospice is really a place of
refuge. During winter, crossing this pass is a very dangerous affair.
The snow falls in small particles, and remains as dry as dust.
Whirlwinds, called "tourmentes," catch up this light snow, and
carrying it with blinding violence against the traveller, burying
every landmark, at once put an end to knowledge of position.
Avalanches, too, are of frequent occurrence.

After violent storms, or the fall of avalanches, or any other unusual
severity of winter weather, the monks set out in search of travellers
who may have been overwhelmed by the snow in their ascent of the
pass. They are generally accompanied in their search by dogs of a
peculiar breed, commonly known as the St. Bernard's Dog, on account of
the celebrated monastery where these magnificent animals are taught to
exercise their wondrous powers, which have gained for them and their
teachers a world-wide fame. On their neck is a bell, to attract the
attention of any belated wayfarer; and their deep and powerful bay
quickly gives notice to the benevolent monks to hurry to the relief of
any unfortunate traveller they may find.

Some of the dogs carry, attached to their collars, a flask of spirits
or other restorative. Their wonderfully acute sense of smell enables
them to detect the bodies of persons buried deeply beneath the surface
of the snow, and thus direct the searchers where to dig for them. The
animal's instinct seems to teach it, too, where hidden chasms or
clefts, filled with loose snow, are; for it carefully avoids them, and
thus is an all-important guide to the monks themselves.

We have stories without number as to what these dogs accomplish on
their own account; how they dig out travellers, and bring them,
sometimes unaided by man, to the hospice.

[Illustration: THE ST. BERNARD DOG.]

A few years ago one of these faithful animals might be s