84 DOG STORIES 



wander many miles in search of prey, and 

 will therefore be well acquainted with the 

 country for many miles round. It is taken 

 fifty miles away. Again it wanders, and 

 comes across a bit of country it knew before. 

 What more natural than that it should go to 

 its old home? Carrier-pigeons are taught 

 " homing " by taking them gradually longer 

 flights from home, so that they may learn the 

 look of the country. We cannot always dis- 

 cover that a dog actually was acquainted 

 with the route by which it wanders home ; 

 but it is quite absurd to imagine, as most 

 people at once do, that it was a perfect 

 stranger to the lay of the land. To find our 

 way a second time over ground we have 

 once trod is scarcely intelligence ; we can 

 only call it instinct, though the word does 

 not in the least explain the process. Two 

 years ago I first visited Douglas, in the Isle 

 of Man. I reached the station at n p.m. ; 

 I was guided to a house a mile through the 

 town. I scarcely paid any attention to the 

 route, yet next morning I found my way by 

 thf? same route to the station, walking with 



