SAGACITY OF THE HOG. 39 



immediately raised, and towards the afternoon a person gave infor* 

 mation that two pigs had been seen swimming across the river at 

 nearly its broadest part. 



" They were afterwards observed trotting along the Pangbourn 

 road, and in one place where the road branches off, putting their 

 noses together as if in deep consultation. The result was their safe 

 return to the place from which they had originally been conveyed 

 to Reading, a distance of nine miles, and by cross roads. 



" The farmer from whom they had been purchased, brought them 

 back to their owner, but they took the very first opportunity again 

 to escape, recrossing the water like two dogs, thus removing the 

 stigma on their race, which proverbially disqualifies them for ' swim- 

 ming without cutting their own throats,' and never stopped until 

 they found themselves at their first home." 



Here we see difficulties overcome, and a strange element encoun- 

 tered, in order to arrive at a far distant spot the home to which 

 the animals were attached. Some recollection of that place or some 

 association of ideas must have influenced the proceedings of these 

 animals; but to what faculty shall we attribute their swimming the 

 river in a direct line with their old master's house, and then finding 

 their way so immediately thither 1 And how shall we account for 

 their thus acting in concert, if pigs are to be considered as the stupid 

 obtuse brutes most persons are in the habit of designating them ? 

 Such instances of sagacity in the dog and the horse scarcely astonish 

 us, because we allow to them a certain degree of reasoning power. 

 But is not the great development of it in them as much arising from 

 their intercourse, if such we may term it, with man 1 from their 

 being his companions, educated and ordered by him 1 " I have ob- 

 served great sagacity in swine," observes Darwin, in his " Zoonomia," 

 " but the short lives we allow them, and their general confinement, 

 prevent their improvement, which would otherwise probably equal 

 that of the dog." 



" The Naturalist's Library " gives another anecdote of a hog 

 which is indicative of no small degree of instinct or intelligence : 



" Early in the month, a pig that had been kept several days a 

 close prisoner to his sty, was let out for the purpose of its being 

 cleaned and his bed replenished. On opening the sty-door, he an- 

 ticipated the purpose of his liberation by running to the stable, from 

 which he carried several sheaves of straw to his sty, holding them 

 in his mouth by the band. The straw being intended for another 

 purpose, it was carried back to the stable ; but the pig, seizing a 

 more favorable opportunity, regained it, to the amazement of several 

 persons, who were pleased to observe the extraordinary instinct of 

 this wonderful pig. 



Swine have also been repeatedly known to "^.h themselves to 

 individuals, and to other animals, anc -f great docility 



gentleness, and affection 



*<.'" 



