360 ALL ABOUT DOGS 



when the dog, whose sagacity is quite equal to that 

 of his master, plunges into the water, and if the fish 

 is either dead or severely wounded, seldom fails to 

 bring the scaly morsel to land; thus as long as the 

 heavens are bright and blue, the water keeps warm on 

 the surface and the larger fish prefer to swim in the 

 sun, the sport continues so long as the climbing and 

 staying powers of the sportsman hold out. Sometimes 

 the dog and fish have a very sharp struggle, and then 

 the fun is great indeed unless, by chance, the sportsman 

 should unfortunately miss his footing in the tree, in the 

 midst of his amusement and drop head foremost into 

 the water with his double-barrelled gun and what is 

 left of his cabbage. 



I think it may be interesting here to quote the 

 eulogistic terms in which Mr. Burchell, the well-known 

 African traveller, wrote of his dogs, as he had a con- 

 siderable experience of the breed in the course of his 

 long and perilous journeys in that (at the time he was 

 there) almost unknown country. 



" Our pack of dogs," says he, " consisted of five and 

 twenty, of various sorts and sizes. This great variety, 

 though not altogether intentional, as I was obliged to 

 take any that could be procured and were at all likely 

 to answer my purposes, was often of the greater ser- 

 vice to me, as I observed, some gave notice of danger, 

 or their suspicions of it, in one way, and others in 

 quite a different manner. Some were more disposed to 

 keep watch against men, others against wild beasts of 

 prey, and others for animals and birds of sport ; some 

 discovered an enemy by their quickness of hearing, 



