76 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



dog arrived he had not got the knife, and also looked 

 somewhat shamefaced. The keeper tried to send him 

 back again, but he would not go. He went back 

 himself, taking the dog with him. No knife was 

 there ; and it was certain that had it been dropped the 

 dog would have picked it up. It then flashed across 

 his mind that the dog, in running up the hill with 

 the knife in his mouth, had swallowed it. Unfor- 

 tunately, as it apparently was not uncomfortable, 

 the retriever showed no signs of wishing to do other 

 than digest it, which, as it was a valuable dog, the 

 keeper was most unwilling to risk. So he took a 

 handful of salt, clapped it into the dog's mouth, and 

 held it tight for a minute and after one or two 

 coughs the knife made its appearance. The dog was, of 

 course, trying to get rid of the salt, not of the knife. 



Wolves, tigers, leopards, and most other carnivora 

 are difficult to poison, from the similar power which 

 they have of rapidly getting rid of a drug. Lions, on 

 the other hand, are very frequently poisoned. It is 

 said that a good many lion-skins, especially those sent 

 from Somaliland before the regrettable misunderstand- 

 ings between whites and blacks had begun in that 

 region famous for large game, were obtained by the 

 unsportsmanlike method of poisoning carcases and 

 leaving them for the lions to devour. Cattle, which 

 have no less than four stomachs, are hopelessly poisoned 

 if once they have swallowed a fatal dose, whether in a 

 toxic plant or otherwise. But this curious arrange- 

 ment of their interiors enables them to take very 

 large doses of certain poisons without any ill effects, 



