A Sportsman 285 



supposed, destroyed all evidence, and then resumed her 

 pensive and innocent attitude in front of the open fire, 

 her favorite resting place. 



While town and farmers' dogs of all kinds will attack, 

 mutilate and prey upon sheep, even their supposed 

 best friend, the collie, brought up with them, will do 

 the same thing not with his master's own flock,which 

 he will guide and protect with his life, but the sheep 

 belonging to a neighbor, which the collie evidently con- 

 siders beyond the pale of his protection. This is a 

 fact well known to sheepmen, and denotes the inborn 

 tendency towards destructive inclinations born in so 

 many animals and by no means lacking in the supe- 

 rior man, who has this inclination largely developed, 

 however guarded it may be by reasoning as indicated 

 by the collie dog in selecting a foreign flock of sheep 

 for his blood-craving taste, without sacrifice of his 

 home loyalty. 



And who shall say that animals are devoid of rea- 

 soning powers, or that dogs and the most intelligent 

 animals are wanting in this respect? Admitting that 

 such is a fact, it is for consideration if (in the inevitable 

 progress of evolution, which, by the laws of nature, 

 is irresistible) it is not reasonable to believe that ad- 

 vancement may be made in developing that sense, 

 as indicated in the superior animal, man, whose source 

 may have been at some period more obscure than 

 shown at the present time by the inferior animals. 

 The period of man's evolution must have been very 

 long, consuming, possibly, many hundreds of centuries, 

 and it is only within a very few thousand years that he 

 reached the level of intelligence requisite for him to 

 mark rough hieroglyphics upon the face of time. But he 



