University's Canine Entrants Favored for Blue Ribbon Honors in Local Dog Show at Mechanics Building

Two dogs entered by the Peabody Museum of the University constitute, so far as is known, the only entries from the University in the Eastern Dog Show now being put on in the Mechanics Building. The dogs are insured for $5000 apiece, a sum greater than that on any of the thoroughbreds who are present, during their brief absence from Cambridge.

The dogs were acquired by Dr. S. J. Guernsey, Assistant Director of the Peabody Museum, in 1923, while visiting the state of Arizona at the head of an expedition to the cliff caves of the so-called basket maker region. On the Kayenta Plateau, near the famous Rainbow National Ridge, the expedition came upon a great cave. Working their way into the sandy cavern the University explorers entered the moulding dwelling and discovered two perfectly preserved dogs and two Indians, almost buried out of sight in the soft dry sand. It was evident that these Indians and their hunting dogs, since the day of their deaths, had lain in this dry sand and had undergone a natural process of mummification in which the dry atmosphere and the sand had combined for the result.

Professor Guernsey is confident that these dogs are the predecessors of the modern American type of dog and that the coyote, instead of being at the roots of the whole canine family tree, is merely an offshooot. Other University expeditions have brought to light dogs from even remoter periods than the two now in Boston, but they were embalmed after the intricate processes of the ancient Egyptians. The two dogs in the Dog Show under the auspices of the Peabody Museum, are believed to be 3000 years old.