GOOD QUALITIES OF THE DOG 105 



CHAPTER V. 



THE GOOD QUALITIES OF THE DOG J THE SENSE OF SMELL ; INTELLI- 

 GENCE ; MORAL QUALITIES ; DOG-CARTS ; CROPPING ; TAILING ; 

 BREAKING-IN ; DOG-PITS; DOG-STEALING. 



IN our history of the different breeds of the dog we have seen enough to 

 induce us to admire and love him. His courage, his fidelity, and the 

 degree in which he often devotes every power that he possesses to our ser- 

 vice, are circumstances that we can never forget nor overlook. His very 

 foibles occasionally attach him to us. We may select a pointer for the 

 pureness of his blood and the perfection of his education. He transgresses 

 in the field. We call him to us ; we scold him well ; perchance, we chastise 

 him. He lies motionless and dumb at our feet. The punishment being 

 over, he gets up, and, by some significant gesture, acknowledges his con- 

 sciousness of deserving what he has suffered. The writer operated on 

 a pointer bitch for an enlarged cancerous tumour, accompanied by much 

 inflammation and pain in the surrounding parts. A word or two of kind- 

 ness and of caution were all that were necessary, although, in order to 

 prevent accidents, she had been bound securely. The flesh quivered as the 

 knife pursued its course a moan or two escaped her, but yet she did not 

 struggle ; and her first act, after all was over, was to lick the operator's 

 hand. 



From the combination of various causes, the history of no animal is 

 more interesting than that of the dog. First, his intimate association with 

 man, not only as a valuable protector, but as a constant and faithful com- 

 panion throughout all the vicissitudes of life. Secondly, from his natural 

 endowments, not consisting in the exquisite delicacy of one individual sense 

 not merely combining memory with reflection but possessing qualities of 

 the mind that stagger us in the contemplation of them, and which we can 

 alone account for in the gradation existing in that wonderful system which, 

 by different links of one vast chain, extends from the first to the last of 

 all things until it forms a perfect whole on the wonderful confines of the 

 spiritual and material world. 



We here quote the beautiful account of Sir Walter Scott and his dogs, 

 as described by Henry Hallam : 



" But looking towards the grassy mound 

 Where calm the Douglas chieftains lie, 

 Who, living, quiet never found, 

 I straightway learnt a lesson high ; 

 For there an old man sat serene, 

 And well I knew that thoughtful mien 

 Of him whose early lyre had thrown 

 O'er mouldering walls the magic of its tone. 



It was a comfort, too, to see 



Those dogs that from him ne'er would rove, 



And always eyed him reverently, 



With glances of depending love. 



