The Sense of Hearing. 105 
to that of the average man. My companion, however, was one 
of the crack ritle shots of the colony, and endowed with 
exceptionally far sight, for [have often heard him correctly 
call out the position of a shot on the target before the flag 
went up, and when other riflemen could not see it. On 
this occasion he was much struck with the dog’s performance, 
and remarked to me: “Well, I should not have thought 
that Carlo’s sight could equal mine, and with the glass too.” 
It should be explained that the binocular we used was one 
of low power and large field, only suitable for a theatre, 
but it appreciably extended the range of vision. This and 
many other instances, both with the same and other dogs, 
inclines me to attribute to them a power of vision not by 
any means inferior, if not superior, to that of other mammals, 
and Mr. Hugh Dalziel tells me that his experience leads him 
to the same conclusion. 
Whatever difference of opinion may exist on this, there can 
be none with respect to the acuteness of the sense of hear- 
ing. Opportunities for verifying this have often occurred tu 
me when camping out alone in the bush with the retriever 
above mentioned. I had occasion to make a journey through 
a part of Australia infested by very hostile tribes of blacks, 
sleeping at shepherds’ huts when fortunate enough to meet 
with them, but more frequently compelled to do the best I 
could, rolled in my blanket, under the canopy of heaven. It 
was not prudent to keep the fire alight after dark, on account 
of the chance of attracting the natives, who would not hesitate 
to crawl up and hurl half a dozen spears at the sleeping figure 
for the sake of appropriating the few pounds of salt or dried 
beef and damper, and the few ounces of tea and sugar in 
the traveller’s saddle bags. After cooking the evening meal 
then there was nothing for it, whether wet or cold, but to 
rake out the fire and tum in. These little encampments 
in the bush—the saddle, the saddle bags, and the sausage- 
like thing in the blanket—seem to excite the curiosity of 
cattle. In the early mornings, when they are moving off 
