134 SIR JOHN ROSS'S CARRIERS. [CHAP. ir. 



a basket, or otherwise, about half a mile from home, 

 and there they turn it out ; after this they carry it a 

 mile, then two, four, eight, ten, twenty, &c., till at 

 length they will return from the furthest parts of the 

 kingdom. This practice is of admirable use ; for every 

 bashaw has generally a basket full of these Pigeons 

 sent him from the grand seraglio ; and in ease of any 

 insurrection, or other emergent occasion, he braces a 

 letter under the wings (?) of a Pigeon, whereby its flight 

 is not in the least incommoded, and immediately turns 

 it loose ; but for fear of their being shot, or struck by a 

 hawk, they generally dispatch five or six ; so that by 

 this means dispatches are sent in a more safe and 

 speedy method than could possibly be otherwise con- 

 trived. N.B. // a Pigeon be not practised when 

 young, the best of them will fly but very indifferently, 

 and may very possibly be lost." * 



The N.B. explains everything ; and an excellent 

 commentary on the principles of Pigeon-flying has 

 been called forth by the cruel hoax that has gone the 

 round of the papers respecting the Pigeons supposed 

 to have arrived in Scotland from Sir John Ross in the 

 Arctic Regions. It appears that Miss Dunlop, of An- 

 nan Hill, presented Sir John, on his leaving Ayr on his 

 chivalrous expedition, with two pairs of Carrier Pigeons, 

 an old pair and a young one. It was arranged that he 

 should dispatch the young birds when he had fixed him- 

 self in winter quarters, and the old ones when he fell 

 in with his missing friend Sir John Franklin, in search 

 of whom he was about to expose himself to Arctic dan- 

 gers. The gift was kindly meant, but very foolish : the 



* Page 76. 



