and instructed him how to quarter the ground properly. In this way, half-a-dozen lessons made him tolerably expert.

Stone hunting is very excellent practice for young dogs, and they become extraordinarily fond of the sport, because, I imagine, they are conscious of exercising their sense of smell to the utmost, and there is the frequent gratification, so dear to their hearts, of having done their duty well. Stones are better for the purpose than any other objects, having no odour proper to themselves. Whatever may attract the dog's eye, such as a stick or ball, or anything with which he is familiar, should be avoided, at least in training, for it is desired to teach him entire dependence on his nose, which begets such implicit confidence that he will work for an indefinite time rather than give up the quest; whereas he soon becomes discouraged if he has acquired the bad habit of using his sight and is immediately successful, while in the dark he can then do nothing. For this reason the learner should be taught at night, when his eyes can give him no help.

My three retrievers, the two Carlos and Hector, were accomplished stone hunters, and on every fine night I indulged them in their favourite pastime. On a freshly macadamised road I would frequently take up one of the pieces of angular granite, rub off a corner on the kerbstone as a means of identification, and throw it to a distance among the others. The only indication of its whereabouts the dog could have, was the sound of its fall, yet failure to retrieve it was the rarest occurrence. Between two dogs equally expert it is interesting to watch the eager emulation displayed in the effort to be first to detect the whereabouts of the stone.

Constant practice is of great advantage to a sporting dog. It cultivates his sense of smell, trains him to perseverance, steadies him for his work in the field, and, by no means the least consideration, gives him an immense amount of innocent enjoyment and affords healthy employment for his

mind. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to remark that in selecting a stone care should be taken to avoid any of so small a size as might accidentally be swallowed; while the practice of encouraging a dog to carry bricks or very large stones, to the possible injury of his teeth, is almost too obviously stupid to need condemnation.

"but I

I have one more instance of the power of discrimination to give. One very dark sultry night in the summer of 1881, a party of ladies and gentlemen were sitting out on the lawn of a country house in Kent, where I was a guest, discussing the subject of animal intelligence. My Australian fellow sportsman, Mr. E. H. Pringle, who had then just returned from India to enjoy a few months' rest after his arduous labours in organising relief for the famine-stricken natives of the Madras Presidency, asked, "Do you think Carlo II. has as fine a nose as his grandfather, whom we used to shoot over in Queensland? I shall never forget his finding that wounded ibis in the ti-tree swamp when you joined me after I had been beating about for it for a quarter of an hour, and at such a distance from the place where it fell." "He has not yet had any great experience of game, I replied, have no doubt of it. However, let us try him." I then sent one of the boys into the house to shut up the dog and bring me a cricket ball, which, after retaining it a few moments in my hand, I threw as far as possible into a thick clump of rhododendron bushes. The dog was now let out of the house and given the command to search. He could not possibly know what object he was required to find, neither had he any idea of the direction in which to seek. In the stillness of the night we could hear that short explosive sound of the air escaping from the lungs after a long inhalation, betokening the eagerness of his quest as he rapidly quartered the ground all around us, and presently moved further away. Everyone except my Australian friend was confident that he would not find it on so dark a night, and I was offered bets of three to one that

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he would not do it if he worked for an hour. To this I replied that I was not in the habit of betting on that which I considered a certainty. Within three minutes he placed the ball in my hand.

"Oh!" remarked one sceptical gentleman, "of course, the boys leave the balls about when they have done playing, and he might easily have picked up the first he came to." The boys stoutly denied this impeachment, and brought out all the balls in their possession, two somewhat the worse for wear, besides that I had made use of. To clear up any doubts, I marked them all with different scratches, and had the dog taken into the house again. Giving two balls to members of the party, who threw them in different directions, I myself threw that which I had first used, and the three would then probably be lying twenty or thirty yards apart among the shrubberies. Again the dog was brought out and sent leather hunting, and I noticed less disposition to bet three to one against the dog, while evens were freely offered by some. In about the same time as before he brought one of the balls, laid it in my hand, and flung himself down as though he thought he had done quite enough to vindicate his character, amidst well deserved applause. On examination, the ball turned out to be that which I had myself thrown. Possibly this may have been accidental, but one can readily understand that he may have hunted for my scent alone, neglecting the other balls if he happened to meet with them.

As a thunderstorm appeared to be brewing, the boys were anxious to get the other balls, and I was asked whether the dog could do it. I had some doubt myself, but the gentleman who was at first so sceptical, thinking he had a good thing, offered two to one on the dog-without any takers. His confidence was quite justified, for in a few minutes both the remaining balls had been brought to hand. "Bravo!" exclaimed Mr. Pringle, “that is as good a performance as his grandfather's in finding my wounded ibis; Carlo II.

is a true and worthy chip of the old block!" Carlo fared well at supper that night, and I could undertake to name one gentleman present who would have been only too proud to have been "within measurable distance" of the caresses bestowed by a certain charming young lady on that highlyfavoured dog.

In a lecture delivered by Dr. John Rae at the London Institution in 1884, on Arctic Exploration, he described a remarkable instance of the value of the Eskimo dog to his master by the exercise of his keen scent in circumstances which must be most unfavourable. The arctic seals have a number of breathing holes in the ice, which they visit at short intervals. These holes are made while the ice is quite thin and kept open by constant use. As the ice thickens, the snow accumulates above them and completely obliterates all trace of them to the eye, a hole in the snow scarcely larger than a threepenny piece being the only communication the animal beneath has with the air. When it wants to breathe, the seal comes up and places its nostrils against the opening in the ice, when its warm breath thaws any slight accumulation of snow that may have fallen since its last visit.

If the Eskimo knows of one of these holes, he approaches stealthily, poises his spear or harpoon directly over the spot, and drives it straight into the seal's brain, after which the quarry is secured by cutting away the ice above it. The Eskimo dog is continually on the search for these breathing places, and on finding one, stands like a terrier at a rabbit's hole if the seal is "at home, and attracts his master to the spot. Thinking that possibly the dog was guided in his discovery by some slight gurgling of water, or the sound of the seal's breathing-as one may often hear the air emitted from the lungs with a kind of snort by seals in captivity on rising to the surface I asked Dr. Rae what his opinion was, and he answered that he had never heard the seals emit any sound at their breathing holes, and believed the dog discovered them solely by his sense of smell.

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I propose now to give a few miscellaneous notes on some wild and domesticated species of dogs, disclaiming, howeverany pretence of treating them from a fancier's point of view. For that the reader must go to such complete works as Mr. Hugh Dalziel's "British Dogs." The British wolf-once the pest of this country-has long since (about 1680) been "wiped out" in the interests of the farmer, and there are not wanting those who would rejoice to see our only remaining indigenous species, the fox, follow his larger congener to extinction. But, so long as the hunting instinct survives in the breast of the true Briton, Reynard will continue to be cherished for the purpose of that sport which some enthusiastic Nimrods declare he enjoys as much as the huntsmen and hounds themselves! It is difficult to take this view when one calls to mind Landseer's picture of the fox lying stiffening to death after a long run, when his cunning has just saved him from being broken up—only to perish of exhaustion.

mode of expression of by no means restricted

Wagging the tail seems to be a satisfaction peculiar to the dog, and to the domesticated animal. Some few years ago the question was seriously debated in the Field, whether wild canidæ had this habit, and it was answered conclusively in the affirmative. One correspondent mentioned the capture of three fox cubs in an earth, which he carried home, and, he continues, "they were then, I should say, about eight or nine days old, as their eyes were not open. They were fed with milk out of a bottle several times a day, and soon got perfectly tame, following us about like puppies as soon as they could run. They are now in a wire inclosure, with an artificial earth in it, and the difficulty seems to be to get them wild enough to turn out. Whenever my wife or myself go near them, they show all the pleasure a dog would, jumping about and wagging their brushes. They know a stranger in a moment, and at once run into the earth."