The Scottish Naturalist. 99 



tution could no longer bear the shock. He crowed once or 

 twice sarcastically, then went melancholy mad. Finally, taking 

 a calenture, he cackled lowly (probably of green fields), and 

 leaping overboard, drowned himself ~." 



Regarding the story as an illustration of doubtful authenticity, 

 involving on the one hand a doubt as to the facts, and on the 

 other as to their interpretation, and desirous of ascertaining the 

 kind and amount of credence to be attached to the incident 

 as narrated, I ventured to appeal to the distinguished author 

 himself, explaining my object. The result was the following 

 characteristic reply, which reads like the record of the 

 incident itself, and the celebrated dog-latin speech the noble 

 yachtsman delivered in Reykjavik — all three probably to be 

 regarded as mainly or merely playful jeux d' esprit. Writing in 

 November 1873, from Government House, Ottawa, Lower 

 Canada, the Earl's private secretary remarks : — " The Earl of 

 Dufferin desires me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter" 



. . and in reply to inform you that the incident related 

 in ' High Latitudes,' of the cock committing suicide, is so far 

 strictly true that the poor animal was drowned overboard with- 

 out the intervention of human agency. But he perhaps is 

 hardly prepared to support the literal statement by scientific 

 reasons. May be, if the cock had been saved, he would have 

 declared that it was a gust of wind, or a higher wave than usual, 

 that carried him from his nautical perch. But as the body of 

 the decea^sed was never recovered, and he left no papers to 

 disclose his intention, Lord Dufferin is afraid it must be 

 admitted, that perhaps a coroner's inquest properly conducted 

 would have brought in a more open verdict !" 



Though the fact of deliberate suicide was " not proven " irr 

 the foregoing case, it is still quite as possible, as in the Upnor 

 dog, that suicide was committed. At all events, the mental 

 perturbation produced by continuous daylight is quite probable, 

 inasmuch as I can myself vouch, from personal experience, 

 for its disquieting effects in Iceland in the month of June. 

 In Reykjavik, the capital, I found, for instance, etiquette visits 

 as commonly paid at midnight — literally by daylight (however 

 much such an expression may appear to be an Irish " Bull") 

 — as at mid-day : and the want of any means of creating 

 artificial darkness during the night in my bedroom utterly pre- 

 vented sleep on my part. In connection with the defects of 

 the records of the incidents relating to the Upnor dog and 



