462 ANIMAL INTELLiaENCE. 



on coming to sinuosities in the coast-line, they spon- 

 taneously leave the beaten track and strike out so as 

 to * cut across the windings by going straight from point 

 to point' of land. This is frequently done even when 

 the leading dog * could not see the whole winding of the 

 beaten track; he seemed to reason that the route must 

 lead around the headlands, and that he could economise 

 travel by cutting across.' 



It will be remembered in connection with these dogs, 

 that Mr. Darwin in the ' Descent of Man ' (p. 75) quotes 

 Dr. Hayes, who, in his work on ' The Open Polar Sea,' 

 * repeatedly remarks that his dogs, instead of continuing 

 to draw the sledges in a compact body, diverged and 

 separated when they came to thin ice, so that their weight 

 might be more evenly [and widely] distributed. This was 

 often the first warning which the travellers received that 

 the ice was becoming thin and dangerous.' Mr. Darwin 

 remarks, ' This instinct may possibly have arisen since the 

 time, long ago, when dogs were first employed by the 

 natives in drawing their sledges ; or the Arctic wolves, 

 the parent stock of the Esquimaux dog, may have ac- 

 quired an instinct, impelling them not to attack their 

 prey in a close pack when on thin ice.' 



Mrs. Horn writes me : — 



One morning, soon after his usual time for stai'ting, I saw 

 the dog looking anxiously about, evidently afraid that my 

 brother had gone without him. He looked into the room 

 where we had breakfasted, but my brother was not there. He 

 went up two or three stairs, and listened attentively. Then, 

 to my astonishment, he came down, and going to the hat-stand 

 in the hall, stood on his hind legs and sniffed at the great-coats, 

 hanging there, undoubtedly trying to ascertain whether my 

 brother's coat was there or not. 



Another correspondent (Mr. Westlecombe) writes : — 



My cat had kittens, of which two were preserved, the rest 

 being drowned. The dog tolerated the two kittens, but did not 

 care about them with any friendship. When the kittens were 

 a few weeks old, I — finding that I could get but one of them 

 off my hands — determined to kill the other, and, as the quickest 

 mode of death, to shoot it by a pistol close behind its head. The 



