232 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 
up in India from two months old, accompanied him 
and a friend from Pondicherry to Benglour, a dis- 
tance of more than three hundred leagues. ‘Our 
journey,” he goes on to say, “ occupied nearly three 
weeks; and we had to traverse numerous plains and 
mountains, and to ford rivers and go along several 
by-paths. The animal, which had certainly never 
been in that country before, lost us at Benglour, and 
immediately returned to Pondicherry. He went di- 
rectly to the house of M. Beylier, then commandant 
of artillery, my friend, and with whom I had gener- 
ally lived. Now the difficulty is not so much to 
know how the dog subsisted on the road (for he was 
very strong and able to procure himself food), but 
how he could so well have found his way after an 
interval of more than a month.” ; 
A still more extraordinary instance of returning 
is recorded on the authority of Lieutenant Alder- 
son, of the Royal Engineers, who was personally 
acquainted with the facts. In March, 1816, an ass, 
the property of Captain Dundas, R. N., then at Mal- 
ta, was shipped on board the Ister frigate, Captain 
Forrest, bound from Gibraltar for 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 swim- 
ming to land; a poor one, for the sea was running 
so high that a boat which left the ship was lost. A 
few days afterward, however, when the gates of 
Gibraltar were opened in the morning, the ass pre- 
sented himself for admittance, and proceeded to the 
stable of Mr. Weeks, a merchant, which he had 
formerly occupied, to the no small surprise of this 
gentleman, who imagined that, from some accident, 
the animal had never been shipped on_ board the 
Ister. On the return of the vessel to repair, the 
mystery was explained; and it turned out that Vali- 
ante (so the ass was called) had not only swam 
safely to shore, but, without guide, compass, or 
