CHAP. XIV.] HIGHLAND SHEPHERDS’ DOGS. i 
hill. On our return we invariably found that he had either 
given up his charge to the shepherd’s wife or some other respon- 
sible person, or had driven them, unassisted, into the fold, lying 
down himself at the narrow entrance to keep them from getting 
out till his master came home. At other times I have seen a 
dog keeping watch on the hill on a flock of sheep, allowing 
them to feed all day, but always keeping sight of them, and 
bringing them home at a proper hour in the evening. In fact 
it is difficult to say what a shepherd’s dog would not do to assist 
his master, who would be quite helpless without him ina Hich- 
land district. 
Generally speaking these Highland sheepdogs do not show 
much aptness in learning to do anything not connected in some 
way or other with sheep or cattle. They seem to have been 
brought into the world for this express purpose, and for no 
other. 
They watch their master’s small crop of oats or potatoes with 
great fidelity and keenness, keeping off all intruders in the shape 
of sheep, cattle, or horses. A shepherd once, to prove the 
quickness of his dog, who was lying before the fire in the house 
where we were talking, said to me, in the middle of a sentence 
concerning something else—“ I’m thinking, Sir, the cow is in 
the potatoes.” Though he purposely laid no stress on these 
words, and said them in a quiet unconcerned tone of voice, the 
dog, who appeared to be asleep, immediately jumped up, and 
leaping through the open window, scrambled up the turf roof of 
the house, froma which he could see the potato-field. He then 
(not seeing the cow there) ran and looked into the byre where 
she was, and finding that all was right, came back to the house. 
After a short time the shepherd said the same words again, and 
the dog repeated his look-out; but on the false alarm being a 
third time given, the dog got up, and wagging his tail, looked 
his master in the face with so comical an expression of interro- 
gation, that we could not help laughing aloud at him, on which, 
with a slight growl, he laid himself down in his warm corner, 
with an offended air, and as if determined not to be made a fool 
of again. 
Occasionally a poaching shepherd teaches his dog to be of 
great service in assisting him to kill game. I remember one of 
