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An incident occurred in the course of the evening whicli 

 ehowed some understanding of language. A little girl want^'d 

 Blanche to come to her, but the dog kept away, on which M. du 

 Rouil said, "Blanche, go salute the little girl !" She immediately 

 went up to the child and made a formal obeisance. 



The owner of Blanche stated that he was going home one night 

 accompanied by the dog and on his way saw a man who was 

 searching for some object that he had lost. "What are you seek- 

 ing?'* he asked. The man answered that he had lost 280 francs. 

 *Tossibly my dog may be able to find them for you ; have you 

 any money left ? If you have, show her a piece of gold." It was 

 done and the dog directed to search. She at once set out and 

 Boon returned, bringing first one piece of gold, then another, 

 and then a bank-note, till the whole sum that had been lost waa 

 regained. 



M. du Eouil said that Blanche really knew all the letters and 

 the playing-cards by their names, and Lyda really knew all the 

 figures. In addition to this Blanche had studied about one 

 hundred and fifty words in different languages, something like 

 twenty in each language. So it was with Lyda and the figures. 

 She knew each one by its name, and would bring the one called 

 for. In describing the earlier stages of training through which 

 these dogs had passed, their owner said the first thing was to 

 make the dog fetch an object, the next to make him discriminate 

 between one of two very different objects placed together, and 

 bring one or the other as it was mentioned by its name. In be- 

 ginning the alphabet he put two most dissimilar letters side by 

 side to begin with, such as an O and an I, avoiding the confusion 

 of similar ones, such as O and Q or B and R. Gradually the 

 dog became observant enough to discriminate between letters in 

 which the difference was not so marked. M. du Rouil said he 

 had found the greatest diflaculty in teaching Blanche to dis- 

 tinguish between the knaves and kings in playing-cards, 

 but that she learned the aces very promptly. When he was 

 asked what after his ten years' experience, was his opinion 

 of the intelligence of dogs, he answered, with great emphasis, 

 **it is infinite." 



