CHAPTER XXXI 

 DOGS ON THE HIGHWAY 



IT must be one of the undeserved trials of animal 

 life that instead of being left to make the best of 

 things as Nature made them, they are always having 

 to learn how not to be killed or frightened to death 

 by some new contrivance of the inventing creature, 

 man. When bicycles first became common in the 

 London streets it was said that dogs must rapidly 

 decrease in numbers, partly because they could not 

 keep up with their owners when riding bicycles, or 

 if they did so were often overtaxed, and partly because 

 the dogs were slow in learning to avoid the machines 

 and so frequently caused accidents. In such cases 

 Stephenson's prophecy as to the fate of the cow on 

 the line is reversed. It is the rider and his machine, 

 and not the dog, who usually suffer. 



The dog, with every good intention, did not for 

 some time seem able to realise the speed of the new in- 

 vention, and other animals had just the same difficulty. 

 A cyclist recently saw a hare trotting along the road 

 towards him. The hare had no idea of the pace the 

 " bike " was travelling, and only saved a collision by 

 a twisting spring just as the wheel was on him, and 

 barely cleared the pedal. In Holkham Park, where 



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