Canine Guests. 



35 



longer lesson, because the dog's powers of attention were 

 soon fatigued. He added, that it was impossible to edu- 

 cate a dog at any other time than the middle of the night, 

 because the slightest' sound disturbed it, and made it for- 

 get the work that had to be done. I inquired what, after 

 his ten years' experience, was his opinion of the intelligence 

 of dogs, and he answered, with great emphasis, " that it is 

 infinite." 



Beyond this he would tell nothing. The only supposi- 

 tion not immediately annihilated by the facts, is that the 

 tone of voice used in uttering the words "Allans, aliens; 

 Cherchez, cherchez Men; Cherchez encore ; Vite, vite, vite" 

 conveyed to the animal, "You are far from the card," 

 " You are nearer the card," "That is the card you must 

 take up ; " but even here there were great difficulties, for 

 M. du Rouil continued, as far as we could detect, in the 

 same tone after the completion of the word, and yet the 

 dog never brought a superfluous letter. The marvellous- 

 ness of so perfect a confederacy may be better understood 

 by supposing a human confederate in the dog's place. 

 Such a human confederate, not knowing the words to be 

 composed, would be very liable to make mistakes, and 

 bring a wrong letter from time to time ; but Blanche never 

 made one mistake — never brought one wrong letter. 



I certainly observed that when she got near the letter 

 she always hesitated between it and its neighbours on each 

 side, but she always finally took the letter that was wanted. 



She got on much faster with one or two words than she 

 did with the others, and seemed to need less encourage- 

 ment. My conclusion was, that from long practice with 

 certain famiHar words (she had worked at the business 

 daily for several years) she could compose those words 



Cherchea encore. Seek it again. 



