NATURAL HISTORT. S7 



" That instinct suggests for them everywhere what is most for 

 their safety, and makes them many times sagacious above oar 

 apprehension." MOKE. 



the metropolis. The discovery of this predilection was made by a gentleman 

 residing a few miles from town, who was called up in the middle of the night by 

 the intelligence that the premises adjoining his house of business were on fire. 

 " The removal of my books and papers," said he, in telling the story, " of course 

 claimed my attention ; yet, notwithstanding this, and the bustle which prevailed, 

 my eye every now and then rested on a dog which, during the hottest progress of 

 the conflagration, I could not help noticing running about, and apparently taking: 

 a deep interest in what was going on ; contriving to keep himself out of everybody's 

 way, and yet always present amidst the thickest of the stir. When the fire was got 

 under, and I had leisure to look about me, I again observed the dog, which, with 

 the firemen, appeared to be resting from duty, and was led to make some enquiries 

 respecting him. ' Is this your dog, my friend ? ' said I to a fireman. ' No, Sir,' 

 answered he ; 'it does not belong to me, or to any one in particular. We call him 

 the firemen's dog.' ' The firemen's dog ! ' I replied. ' Why so ; has he no 

 master?' 'No, Sir,' rejoined the fireman, 'he calls none of us master;, though 

 we are all of us willing enough to give him a night's lodging and a pennyworth of 

 meat. But he won't stay long with any of us. His delight is to be at all the fires 

 in London ; and, far or near, we generally find him on the road as we are going 

 along, and sometimes, if it is out of town, we give him a lift. I don't think there 

 has been a fire for these two or three years past which he has not been at.' 



" This communication was so extraordinary that I found it difficult to believe the 

 story until it was confirmed by the concurrent testimony of several other firemen. 

 None of them, however, were able to give any account of the early habits of the dog, 

 or to offer any explanation of the circumstances which led to this singular 

 propensity. 



" Some time afterwards I was again called up in the night to a fire in the village 

 in which I resided (Camber well, in Surrey), and to my surprise here I again met 

 with 'the firemen's dog,' still alive and well, pursuing, with the same apparent 

 interest and satisfaction, the exhibition of that which seldom fails to bring with it 

 disaster and misfortune, oftentimes loss of life and ruin. Still he called no man 

 master, disdained to receive bed or board from the same hand more than a night or 

 two at a time, nor could the firemen trace out his resting-place." 



Such was the account of this interesting animal, as it appeared in the newspapers, 

 to which were shortly afterwards appended several circumstances communicated by 

 a fireman at one of the police offices. A magistrate having asked him whether it 

 was a fact that the dog was present at most of the fires that occurred in the metro- 

 polis, the fireman replied that he never knew " Tyke," as he was called, to be absent 

 from a fire upon any occasion that he (the fireman) attended himself. The magis- 

 "trate said the dog must have an extraordinary predilection for fires He theu 

 asked what length of time he had been known to possess that propensity. The 

 fireman replied that he knew Tyke for the last nine years ; and, although he was 

 getting old, yet the moment the engines were about, Tyke was to be seen as active 

 as ever, running off in the direction of the fire. The magistrate inquired whetber 

 UM du> liked any particular fireman. The fireman replied that Tyke liked one 



5 



