Guard Dogs 187 



is no mistaking it, to one who knows his dog's mind. A 

 dog, thoroughly and suddenly aroused to sudden danger, at 

 once conceives the necessity for warning his master, and 

 the force of his feeling is manifested in a supremely con- 

 centrated effort. With some dogs I have had, I have been 

 able to judge exactly the degree of danger, and what is to 

 be expected, by the quality of the warning bark. I have 

 noticed, that when the dog judges, that what it sees or 

 hears, is of a peculiarly alarming nature, the bark very 

 often is combined with a prolonged howl, and I have 

 often wondered, whether some remembrance does not 

 return, of the time, when the canine ancestors guarded 

 the camps of old on the lonely plains, infested by ravening 

 animals, and the howl was then the only means of express- 

 ing the note of warning. A curious instance of a dog 

 divining danger through sound, came under my notice. 

 It was at the time of the terrific explosion of the munition 

 works at Silvertown, Poplar. The sound of the explosion 

 was heard at my house outside London, and in the room 

 in which I was sitting with the dog. The windows also 

 shook, but the impression I received, was as of a shot-gun, 

 fired fairly close to the house, — a sound which the dog had 

 frequently heard, and which he always resented and 

 barked at, in an ordinary way. At the time of the explosion, 

 however, it threw up its head, and let forth his most con- 

 centrated form of watch-dog bark, in which there was a 

 large proportion of howl, and continued this for some time 

 after the sound, which was practically instantaneous, had 

 ceased. I then knew that something had happened, beyond 

 what I myself had grasped. This habit of barking, to let 

 its master know of approaching danger, is also due to the 

 fact, that the guard dog has been usually placed in such 

 a position, outside the camp or house, so that it has to 



