INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 115 



panions of the human race. Many times, when we 

 have been travelling over plains where those have 

 fled the moment we appeared in sight, have I 

 turned my eyes towards my dogs to admire their 

 attachment, and have felt a grateful affection to- 

 wards them for preferring our society to the wild 

 liberty of other quadrupeds. Often, in the middle 

 of the night, when all my people have been fast 

 asleep around the fire, have I stood to contemplate 

 these faithful animals lying by their side, and have 

 learned to esteem them for their social inclination to 

 mankind. When wandering over pathless deserts, 

 oppressed with vexation and distress at the conduct 

 of my own men, I have turned to these as my only 

 friends, and felt how much inferior to them was 

 man, when actuated only by selfish views. 



" The familiarity which subsists between this 

 animal and our own race, is so common to almost 

 every country on the globe, that any remark upon 

 it must seem superfluous ; but I cannot avoid be- 

 lieving, that it is the universality of the fact which 

 prevents the greater part of mankind from reflecting 

 duly on the subject. While almost every other 

 quadruped fears man as its most formidable enemy, 

 here is one which regards him as his companion, 

 and follows him as his friend. We must not mis- 

 take the nature of the case : it is not because we 

 train him to our use, and have made choice of him 

 in preference to other animals; but because this 

 particular species feels a natural desire to be useful 

 to man, and from spontaneous impulse attaches it- 



