ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 'M5 



The account he received from two of them was, that, returning 

 home, they saw a dog swimming at a distance, seemingly anxiously 

 employed in dragging and sometimes pushing a mass he appeared 

 to have much difficulty in keeping above water, but which he at 

 length succeeded in getting into a small creek, and drew it to land. 

 By this time the peasants had advanced sufficiently to discover 

 that the object of his solicitude was a man, which this animal, 

 exhausted as he must have been, immediately set about licking the 

 hands and face of. The peasants hastened across by the nearest 

 bridge, and conveyed the body to a neighbouring cottage ; and 

 which, on being stripped, was found to be deeply indented by the 

 teeth of the dog, both in the nape of the neck, and in one of the 

 shoulders also. The remaining scars the master used to shew 

 with much satisfaction ; and nothing could shake his firm convic- 

 tion that his dog had first suspended him by the shoulder, but that, 

 finding his head was not elevated above the water, he had shifted 

 his hold to the nape of his neck, for the express purpose of so 

 elevating it. And, however we may hesitate to attribute this 

 change of position to a motive so intrinsically intellectual, yet we 

 must respect his error, if it was one ; for where is the mind that 

 might not be warped by such a debt ? If my memory serves me 

 aright, it was more than a quarter of a mile that the dog had to 

 swim with his master's body before any creek offered, and, when 

 arrived there, he had still to drag it on a bank. 



The lower portrait represents one of those remarkable instances 

 of intelligence and devotion to the service of man for which the 

 shepherd's dog is so justly celebrated. This dog was the property 

 of a butcher and drover living in the neighbourhood of Hexham ; 

 much of whose business consisted in purchasing cattle of all de- 

 scriptions, and taking them weekly to Alston market, a distance of 

 nine miles. In so doing, this dog exhibited such extreme adroit-. 



