396 Modern Dogs. 



to snatch such articles from the hands of unsus- 

 picious ladies, make off with his spoil, following a 

 light cart, in which the 'defendant and his wife were 

 seated. In due course the purloined article was 

 taken from the dog by its owner, who was then 

 apprehended and charged, as stated. Eventually the 

 case against him was dismissed. I am told that the 

 dog did the trick well ; still it is scarcely right to 

 train any creature to such a dishonest practice. 



Then about the same time another retriever saved 

 a child from drowning in the Thames, the owner, 

 unable to swim himself, sending in his dog to the 

 rescue of the struggling infant, who had fallen off 

 the tow-path, and was being washed away by the 

 receding tide. 



Not long ago an interesting presentation took 

 place at Cardiff, the captain of a Liverpool steam 

 ship being presented with the bronze medal of the 

 Board of Trade for saving life, under the following 

 circumstances : A boat was capsized when leaving 

 a wreck, the occupants being thrown into the 

 heavy sea ; Captain Nickels twice swam out into the 

 surf and saved four men from drowning. But he 

 was assisted greatly by a retriever dog, who later, 

 when his master, Mr. Pengelly, who had been 

 assisting in the rescue, was about exhausted and 

 struggling in the water, seized him by the collar and 



