128 The Carnivora. 
Not to weary the reader with more instances, which could 
be given, of this particular case, I will pass on to others of a 
a somewhat different character, but indicative of the same 
power of identification. The most recent occurred lately with 
Carlo II. 
I was walking up Haverstock-hill, a good many people 
passing at the time, when the dog, a few yards in front of 
me, threw up his nose, sniffed the air, wagged his tail, then 
turned and ran past me round a corner a short distance be- 
hind. Following him, I found him making friends with a 
young lady who had passed me unnoticed, and with whose 
family we were on intimate terms. At the moment when first 
he became conscious of her presence he could not have seen 
her, as she would then have turned the corner. A few days 
subsequently I saw her mother approaching in Park-road, 
some thirty or forty yards away. The dog trotted past her 
without seeing her or making any sign, but long before we 
met I saw him turn, hesitate, sniff the air, wag his tail, and 
run back to greet her. 
Looking over my notes, I find several more instances of 
this kind of recognition by scent of persons with whom the 
dog was well acquainted. There may be a doubt whether he 
identified them respectively as A. B., ©. &c. (though 
there can be none in the case of my sister), but the expres- 
sion of pleasure immediately on perceiving the scent points 
at least to the recognition of a friend by the sense of smell. 
I think there is a strong presumption that the association 
of ideas is in all cases carried as far as complete identifi- 
cation of the scent with a particular person, and the dog 
recalls the several ideas which go to make up the indivi- 
duality as it is apprehended by his mind. 
This should cause us no surprise when we reflect on the 
power of discrimination exhibited by a sporting dog. To the 
human olfactory sense a living or recently killed snipe or 
partridge gives no distinct odour, yet these birds possess, 
for the dog, so potent an odour, that with the wind in his 
