66 
ME. G. J. ROMANES — EXPERIMENT S ON 
zigzags I Lad made until lie found me. Now in order to do this 
he had to distinguish my trail from at least a hundred others 
quite as fresh, and many thousands of others not so fresh, cross- 
ing it at all angles.” * 
The object of the experiments about to he described was that 
of ascertaining whether a dog, when thus distinguishing his 
master’s trail, is guided by some distinctive smell attaching to 
his master’s shoes, to any distinctive smell of his master’s feet, 
or to both these differences combined. 
I have a setter-bitch over which I have shot for eight years. 
Having a very good nose, she can track me over immense dis- 
tances. and her devotion to me being very exclusive, she consti- 
tuted an admirable subject for my experiments. 
These consisted in allowing the bitch to be taken out of the 
kennel by some one to whom she was indifferent, who then led 
her to a prearranged spot from which the tracking was to begin. 
Of course this spot was always to leeward of the kennel, and the 
person who was to be tracked always walked so as to keep more 
or less to leeward of the starting-point. The district — park-lands 
surrounding a house — was an open one, presenting, however, 
numerous trees, shrubberies, walls, &c., behind which I could hide 
at a distance from the starting-point, and so observe the animal 
during the whole course of each experiment. Sundry other pre- 
cautions, which I need not wait to mention, were taken in order 
to ensure that the bitch should have to depend on her sense 
of smell alone, and the following are the experiments which were 
tried : — 
1. — I walked the grass-lands for about a mile in my ordinary 
shooting-boots. The instant she came to the starting-point, the 
bitch broke away at her full speed, and, faithfully following my 
track, overtook me in a few minutes. 
2. — I set a man who was a stranger about the place to walk 
the park. Although repeatedly put upon his trail by my servant, 
the bitch showed no disposition to follow it. 
3. — I had the bitch taken into the gun-room, where she saw 
me ready to start for shooting. I then left the gun-room and 
went to another part of the house, while my gamekeeper left the 
house by the back door, walked a certain distance to leeward in 
the direction of some partridge-ground, and then concealed him- 
* ‘ Mental Evolution in Animals,’ pp. 92-3 ; -where also see for additional 
remarks of a general kind on the sense of smell in different animals. 
