ANECDOTE OF AN ASS, 27 



The bee, however devious have been its excursions 

 from home, returns straight to the hive ; and the follow- 

 ing well authenticated narrative places this geographi- 

 cal instinct in a strong point of view. 



"In March 1816, an ass, the property of Captain 

 Dundas, R.N. then at Malta, was shipped on board 

 the Ister frigate. Captain Forrest, bound from Gibral- 

 tar to that island. The vessel having struck on some 

 sands off the Point de Gat, at some distance from the 

 shore, the ass was thrown overboard to give it a chance 

 of swimming to land. The sea was running so high, 

 that a boat which left the ship was lost : a few days 

 afterwards, however, when the gates of Gibraltar were 

 opened, the ass presented himself for admittance, , and 

 proceeded to the stable of Mr. Weeks, a merchant, 

 which he had formerly occupied, to the no small sur- 

 prise of this gentleman, who imagined that from some 

 accident the animal had never been shipped on board 

 the Ister. On the return of this vessel to repair, the 

 mystery was explained ; and it turned out that Vali- 

 ante (so the ass was called j had found its way from 

 Point de Gat to Gibraltar, a distance of more than two 

 hundred miles, through a mountainous and intricate 

 country, intersected by streams, which he had never 

 traversed before, and in so short a period that he could 

 not have made one false turn. His not having been 

 stopped on the road was attributed to the circumstance 



