are

sufficiently attached to their master to make the effort. Whether bulldogs and pugs, with their contracted nasal bones, or any of the degraded creatures used as lap dogs, would evince any such aptitude might well be doubted. But that bulldogs are not wholly incapable of this is certain.

The retriever above mentioned was so well known among friends and acquaintances for his faculty of discovering my whereabouts in most difficult circumstances that I was often asked to give an exhibition of his powers. While looking on at a cricket match in a county town this became the subject of conversation, and it was suggested that I should tie the dog up, walk home through the town, and leave directions that he should be let loose in half an hour. That would have been no considerable task for him, but I do not choose to let my dogs run the risk of being maimed by that species of ruffian which always is on the look-out to fling a stone at a dog when his master is not at hand. As soon as the match was over, however, I gave him in charge to a friend, with directions to allow me five minutes' law. The people were then crossing the ground in all directions. I walked to the other side of the ground among them, got over the fence, and hid myself in a ditch on the opposite side of a large field. When released, he hunted my trail slowly, I was told, but with no hesitation; and from my place of concealment I saw him jump the fence where I had climbed it, and came racing along the scent, never lifting his nose until he rushed into the ditch, much surprised and delighted at having found me so soon.

Now, in all probability, my trail across the cricket field was cut up into a hundred short lengths by the footsteps of others, and these were, therefore, so many elements of distraction in the pursuit of one scent; yet he was able to pick out the desired trail with certainty. Had anyone of the owners of those footsteps been the master of the dog he would, no doubt, have been equally certain of following them. Every footprint must have given a distinct scent,

which he perceived, but neglected in favour of that which he was intent on following. It must, indeed, be a marvellous faculty than can thus entertain in the sensorium a succession of varied perceptions and, at the same time, take account only of the particular impression it is desired to retain as associated with the presence of some individual man. It would seem that every human being has some special odour proper to himself, and distinct from that by which the dog recognises the genus homo in general, and distinguishes man from any other animal and from birds. We could never have known this but for the behaviour of our dogs when seeking their masters. Further, I have reason to believe that they know by smell-i.e., can recall to memory the identity of people with whom they are familiar without seeing them at the moment. Reference will be made to this presently.

Some naturalists have supposed that the man is traced by the dog by reason of some peculiarity in the leather of his boots. That explanation does not agree with what my experiments-so far as they go-indicate. In the first place, my

dogs, have hunted me, at least, on grass, with more confidence and certainty when I walked barefooted than otherwise. New slippers and boots, which I have tried, puzzled them all, and one of them would take no notice whatever of my trail when I was shod in any kind of new foot covering; though even new boots did not prevent Carlo I. from making out the trail with some difficulty while quite fresh. One summer morning, being with a friend in a large park, I suggested that we should change boots, and that he should cover the dog's eyes, and presently let him go in search of me. It was a complete failure. For the first few yards (as he told me), there seemed to be a trace of me in the air, and the dog kept on the track, but soon became uncertain, and finally gave up the quest. On another occasion, I rubbed my bare feet with paraffin oil, and walked very leisurely across a lawn for a distance of, perhaps, a hundred yards.

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The dog was unable to track me. A few days after this I rolled across the lawn the same distance and he ran on the trail with confidence.

Presuming from these trials that every part of my body left some trace of the special odour belonging to me, and associated in the dog's mind with my individuality, I determined to extend them whenever a favourable opportunity presented itself. But unfortunately the series I had planned could not be carried out systematically, for he became languid and indisposed for exercise, and within two or three months died of aneurism on the aorta. However, I ascertained that he was able to track me with great ease riding on a bicycle and trailing my coat on the ground by a string, but with more difficulty when I used a felt hat or one of my boots in the same way.

Hunting on a back scent is an accomplishment which seems to imply much discrimination. It would be an unwarrantable supposition to entertain that few dogs are capable of this, but, with a considerable acquaintance among good retrievers, I have seen only two-Carlo I. and his grandson-perform this feat thoroughly well; though, probably, any well trained retriever would prove equally expert if the necessity presented itself to his mind.

I am bound to confess that I did not think of it as even possible, until Carlo I. showed quite unexpectedly what he could do. In stalking a kangaroo for some time in a dense scrub with no result, my powder-flask fell unnoticed out of my breast pocket. Valuing the article as the gift of an old friend, I determined to make an effort to find it, though the difficulty of retracing my steps through thick wattle bushes and interlaced creeping plants appeared almost insuperable, especially as there was nothing in the way of a landmark, where the stem of each tree was exactly like every other, and the few open spaces I had crossed were covered with a uniform growth of ferns. For some minutes I wandered back as nearly as I could in the right direction

rather with the hope of finding the object of my search by a happy accident than with any expectation of succeeding by systematic efforts. At a certain spot I had crawled through the ferns for some distance on hands and knees, and there, probably, the flask had fallen from my pocket. If I could find this spot there might be some chance of picking up my trail by following the line of bent and broken ferns, but that place, could not be, I knew much less than half a mile away. Seeing me intent upon some object which he perceived by my manner and downcast eyes could not be sport, the dog looked up in my face inquiringly, and it then occured to me, as a forlorn hope, to try the experiment of crying, "Seek, there, boy." If one may be permitted to make an attempt at divining a dog's thoughts, a train of reflection would seem to have passed through his mind in this wise; "No shot has been fired, therefore there is no game to find. What, then, can my master mean now by 'Seek there'? Surely, he must intend me to look for something belonging to him, as he often does when he hides a boot or some other thing that he has handled and sends me for it. Well, I can always do that by following his scent, so I can now." Those who believe with that great philospher, John Locke, who, by-the-by, nowhere in his works evinces any considerable knowledge of animals, that "the power of abstracting is not at all in them

that they do, some of them in certain instances reason, but only in particular ideas, just as they received them from their senses," will by no means allow me to attribute to the dog even so simple a generalisation as this.

I leave them, however, to explain what the mental process was which prompted him to act as he did on hearing the command. He cast round for a few seconds in an excited manner, and soon found my trail, working so fast on it that I could not at first follow without repeatedly checking him. Those who are familiar with the Australian bush will appreciate the difficulty of working, now through the scrubs on soft,

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damp earth, which never feels the sun, then across burnt patches of rocky soil, and anon among ferns which almost stop the passage of a man. Two or three times he was so much at fault that I had some misgivings, and nothing but my conviction that he was without doubt on the track, and of his staunchness in all his work, sustained my confidence in him. After the first command I spoke not a word to distract his mind, or interfere with the concentration of purpose he evinced. To watch such an honest and thorough piece of work was a greater pleasure than I have ever derived from sport; and when he at length picked up the flask from among the ferns, and triumphantly delivered it into my hand, I thought John Locke's self-sufficient depreciation of animal intelligence would have met with a severe rebuke, had the author of the "Essay concerning Human Understanding" stood beside me, and witnessed that dog's exultation in the sucessful performance of the difficult task set him-a task which from first to last must have been accompanied by full conciousness of the end to be attained, viz., that of finding some object associated with his master.

The powder flask will never again do duty in charging the old "Purdey;" but it hangs on the wall among other cherished mementoes of the past, each of which could tell some story, or has borne some part in adventures by flood and field, and serves to carry memory back to scenes whose interest was so greatly enhanced by the society of the dog.

A few days after my return to England a friend took me over his shooting to have a look at the coveys, among which we should be busy before long, and I gave him the above account of hunting on my back trail. He then proposed a trial immediately, though having, like myself, some doubts whether the dog might not be puzzled in highly-farmed country, so different from his native Australia, and swarming with ground game. Accordingly I rolled up my pocket handkerchief, tying it in a knot, unnoticed by the dog, and threw it into a ditch. We then separated a few yards, to prevent