16 IMPORTATION OF FURS. — SAGACITY OF THE DOG. 



animal's paws, who turned round with him in his mouth, 

 growling like a cat over a mouse, and looked the officer in 

 the face. He did what could be done, and with his men 

 attacked the tiger, whom they wounded so severely that he 

 dropped his prey. But the first blow had done its work 

 effectually, and the poor man's skull was mashed in such a 

 manner as literally to be all in pieces. — The officer told 

 Major Hamilton that from that day forwards this scene was 

 seldom absent from his dreams, and with the least illness or 

 fever he had always a return of the vision of the tiger, with 

 the unfortunate man in his jaws, whom his imprudence had 

 sacrificed/ ' 



IMPORTATION OF FURS. 



Our fair readers are perhaps not aware of the extent to 

 which they furnish employment to the hunters in North 

 America by their demand for furs. It has been stated that 

 the Hudson Bay Company alone in one year imported 3000 

 skins of the black bear, 60,000 of the pine marten, 1800 of 

 the fisher (a species of sable) , 4600 of the mink, 7300 of the 

 otter, 8000 of the fox, 9000 of the Canadian lynx, 60,000 of 

 the beaver, 150,000 of the musk rat ; besides a great many 

 skins of wolves, badgers, and racoons. 



SAGACITY OF THE DOG. 



Many years ago, a waterman near Hammersmith was sleep- 

 ing in his boat, when the vessel broke from her moorings and 

 was carried by the tide under a barge. A dog which was on 

 board awoke the waterman by pawing his face and pulling the 

 collar of his coat at the instant the boat was filling with water, 

 — and thus saved his life. 



Le Vaillant, in the course of his travels in Africa, having 

 missed a favourite little dog, directed one of his servants to 

 mount a horse and return in search of the lost pet. After an 

 absence of some hours, the man returned with the dog, bring- 

 ing with him a basket and a chair that had been dropped 

 from one of the waggons without being noticed. The dog 

 was found at the distance of several miles, lying on the road 

 watching the lost basket and chair ; and if he had not been 

 found by the servant, must inevitably either have perished 

 with hunger or been devoured by wild beasts. 



