86 THE DOC. 



" licking the hand which caressed him, as if in token 

 "of forgiveness for having taken away his life !" 



Note. In several convents situated among the moun- 

 tains that divide Trance and Italy, travellers assure us a 

 custom prevails that does honour to human nature. In 

 the sequestered and uninhabited parts of the Alps, 

 strangers and travellers are not only hospitably enter- 

 tained, but a breed of dogs are trained to go in search 

 of those wanderers who, from the obscurity of the paths, 

 may have lost tbeir way, which are every morning sent 

 from the convents with an apparatus fastened to their 

 collars, containing refreshments for their use, and di- 

 rections to the travellers to follow the footsteps of the 

 sagacious animals, who will conduct them to an abode 

 where they will be hospitably entertained ; and many 

 lives are said to be preserved in that wild and rqmantic 

 country, merely by this benevolent and judicious plan. 



OF THE WOLF. 



Though the wolf and the dog bear an internal re- 

 semblance, in habit and disposition they totally dis- 

 agree ; and no two animals in the creation entertain 

 towards each other more antipathy and dislike. The 

 wolf likewise goes an hundred days with young, and 

 the dog not more than fifty-nine : the existence of the 

 former is protracted to the space of twenty years, whilst 

 the latter seldom attains the age of fifteen. 



The body" of the wolf measures three feet seven, 

 whilst that of the largest mastiff is scarcely known to 

 exceed three feet, which proves that the external form 

 of these animals greatly varies, though the internal 

 conformation may happen to agree. 



The colour of the wolf's coat is a combined mixture 



