98 The Scottish Naturalist. 



dog suffered, vomiting, and eating nothing, but fed on gruel 

 with a spoon by his mistress — who was extremely fond of him. 

 Frequently ' Bruce' would dip his head in a pail of water, and 

 let the water run into his throat and out again so as to cool it, 

 not being able to drink properly. He became nearly blind. The 

 last night, his mistress sat up all night to attend to him, and to 

 prevent him from tearing about and injuring the paint-work. 

 At five a.m. she let him out of doors, when he went over to the 

 ' King's Arms' at Upnor, and howled or cried. The master's 

 brother heard him but did not open the door, fearing the dog 

 because of his illness ; for the people said that he was mad and 

 ought to be drowned. The dog went to the river's side at six 

 a.m., walked out into the river, and lay down on the shore 

 with his head inclined in the water. The mistress thinks that 

 he was too weak to get up, and so got drowned. She disbe- 

 lieves in suicide. 



" The witnesses were Hobbs (now alive) and Roemer (dead), 

 of Upnor, watermen or lightermen, who were in a lighter at the 

 time, close by. The dog was submerged for three weeks. 

 The witness thinks that the dog wished to cool its throat as it 

 had done in the pail of water. The witness, aged forty years 

 at the present time, related these facts to me." 



Here is another instance of a much more public kind, in which 

 the proof of alleged Suicide breaks down at once on strict 

 inquiry. There are probably few readers of current popular 

 British literature who are unacquainted with a racy volume, 

 descriptive of a yacht voyage in northern seas, by the present 

 Governor-general of Canada, the first edition of which 

 appeared some years ago.* At page 32 of the said work he 

 gives the following account of the Suicide of a cock : — "A very 

 melancholy occurrence took place. I had observed for some 

 days past, as we proceeded north, and the nights became 

 shorter, that a cock we had shipped at Stornoway had become 

 quite bewildered on the subject of that meteorological pheno- 

 menon called the dawn of day. In fact I doubt whether he 

 ever slept for more than five minutes at a stretch without 

 waking up in a state of nervous agitation, lest it should be 

 cock-crow. At last, when night ceased altogether, his consti- 



*" Letters from High Latitudes; an account of a yacht voyage to 

 Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitsbergen;" by the Earl of Dufferin (then 

 Lord Dufferin). Fifth editition, illustrated, post 8vo. London, 1875. 



