212 
KOREST AND , STREAM. 
[Sept. is, 1900. 
manifested much alike by every individual. On the 
other hand, acts of reason vary greatly in their manites- 
tations concerning the same object. For instance, out ot 
sc\eral methods bv which a purpose may be accom- 
plished as in the pursuit of a rabbit, some dogs adopt 
one method, some another, according to the governing 
circumstances at the time, such as whether the dog wa| 
alone or one of a pack; his knowledge of methods derived 
from prior experience; his ability to discriminate as to 
methods; his ability as to bodily powers— that is) whether 
lie had sufficient speed to rush and capture at once or. 
being slow, whether to make a long race on the basis 
of endurance, etc. The same dog, indeed, not infre- 
quently employs different methods at dififerent times to 
accomplish the same purpose, accordingly as experience 
improves his knowledge or maturity improves his mtel- 
lect. or as dififerent circumstances govern. 
Instinct holds relativelv as small t)art m the life ot the « 
dog as it does in the life of man. Dogs inhent the in- 
stinct of self-preservation, the maternal and paternal in- 
stinct and the instinct to seek a food supply, etc., but in 
the activities of life,' in choosing means to ends, their' 
intelligence holds full sway. 
Experience and observation add to the dog's store of 
knowledge as they do to the store of man's. 
The dog's knowledge is a growth. Whether he is 
wild or domesticated, he has much training of mind and 
body to undergo before he fits into his environment to 
the b«st advantage to himself. If in a wild state, he must 
learn all the wiles of pursuit, of attack and defense, both 
as an individual and as one of a pack. In a domesticated 
state he intelligently fits himself to his environment by 
following the lines of least resistance. Cuffed for jump- 
ing on the bed, driven from the parlor with a broomstick, 
scolded for barking in the house or thrashed for an. at- 
tempt to steal food from the table, etc., he avoids the 
experiences which are painful and makes the most of 
such privileges as are pleasant and allowed to him. 
In time, as experience directs, his manner of life be- 
comes his habit of life. He ceases to have a longing for 
the comforts of the parlor and forbears stealing food un- 
less he has a safe opportunity. 
The moral nature of the dog never reaches to a height 
which commands much ' confidence. He is naturally a 
predatory animal, and his marauding instincts, though 
reasonably dormant in his own home, are quickly brought 
into activity on outside opportunity. In the home of 
his master's friend, where he is for the first time, the 
dog most bra/iently searches every nook and corner, dis- 
regards his home manners and does not hesitate to ap- 
propriate to his own use any food he may find. Accord- 
ing to his point of view he is doing no wrong. Such is 
his nature. In time, with more thumpings and niore 
painful experience, he learns that the rules in force at 
his own home are also the rules to be observed when 
he is in other homes, and he governs himself accord- 
ingly. However, he easily drifts into vagabond habits 
if opportunity offers, such as sneaking off into the fields 
and woods on self-hunting trips, associating with vaga- 
bond dogs, etc., and at such times he will indulge in many 
freaks and fancies of which he would not be guilty if 
under the eye of his master. 
He has a profound affection for his master, but that 
does not in the least signify that he loses any of his 
own individuality or interest in his own manner of life. 
On the matter of his affection, by the way, he has been 
lauded to heights on the one hand, quite as unwarranted 
as he was depreciated on the other in the matter of in- 
telligence. Dogs love their masters, it is true, but not 
as a rule with the loyalty and devotion so dear to senti- 
mental writers as a theme when elaborating on the no- 
bility which dogs possess. 
The average dog, however much he may exhibit affec- 
tion for his master to-day, will be quite content to take 
up with a new one to-morrow. A few appetizing morsels 
of food are sufficient to excite his interest, a few pats on 
the head evoke his friendship, and a few repetitions of 
friendly attention win his affection. Some dogs have a 
more consistent devotion than others; some are brave 
and will fight for their masters as they will fight for each 
other; some will run from danger, regardless of whom it 
may threaten. 
The dog, being gregarious, has a natural repugnance to 
loneliness. In a wild state, he lives in packs with his 
fellows, and observes much the same watchfulness and 
devotion to the common good that he does toward his 
home in. domestication. 
The wild instinct of friendly alliance is expressed in 
domestication. He forms an attachment for his master 
and the members of his master's family. Ho may. how- 
ever, form a more friendly attachment for a horse. He 
concedes the domination of his master, but he concedes 
the same to (he leader of the pack in a wild state. 
Hounds in domestication have a leader to which they 
look for leadership in the pursuit of foxes, etc. 
The dog in domestication soon learns to consider his 
master's home as his own. If he prowls away from 
liome, seeking to investigate other homes, the dogs of 
the latter consider that their homes are invaded, and they 
bark furious resentment, or perchance light and give the 
intruder a sound mauling. The strange youths throw- 
rocks at or maltreat him if they can lay liands on him. 
Thus he learns that his own home is the most pleasant 
to him. He does not know of any other home, so that 
accepting the best home of which lie has any knowledge 
is not a matter deserving of any special eulogy. 
Some writers have not hesitated to exalt the dog as 
being, in many noble characteristics, superior to man. 
His devotion, fidelity and unselfishness are favorite 
themes. Man. too, possesses these traits. Nevertheless, 
on analysis, all these qualities, as exhibited by the dog, 
are found to be far short of the ideal perfection ascribed 
to him. The man who first said "The more I see of 
men the better I like dogs" could hardly have been 
serious, or, if he was serious, he knew neither men nor 
dogs, assuming that he had a normal mind. "The dog as 
he really is is companionable and devotfed enough. Matt, 
nevertheless, could lose the companionship of the dog 
much better than the dog could that of man. In material 
advantages he is a gainer by his association with man. 
pn the question of animal intelligence, the eminent 
philosopher. Dr. Ludwig Buchner, in his work, "Man in 
the Past, Present and Future." sets forth that, "Indeed, it 
is sufficiently well known that the intellectual life of ani- 
mals has hitherto been greatly underestimated or falsely 
interpreted., simply because our closet philosophers al- 
ways started, not from an impartial and unprejudiced ob- 
servation and appreciation of nature, but from philosoph- 
ical theories in which the true position, both of man and 
animals, was entirely misunderstood. But as soon as wc 
liegan I'o strike into a new path, it was seen that intel- 
lectually, morally and artistically the animal roust be 
placed in a far higher position than was formerly sup- 
posed, and that the germs and first rudinients even of 
the highest intellectual faculties' of man are existent and 
easily demonstrable in much lower regions. The pre- 
eminence of man over the annual is therefore rather 
relative than absolute — that is to say, it consists in the 
greate.r iierfection and more advantageous development of 
those characteristics which he possesses in common with 
animals, all the faculties of mair being as it were pro- 
phetically foreshadowed in the animal world, but in man 
more highly developed by natural selection. On closer 
consideration, all the supposed specific distinctive cliar- 
actei;s between man and animals fall away, and even those 
attributes of humanity which arc regarded as most char- 
acteristic, such as the intellectual and moral tiualities, 
the upright gait, and free use of the hands, the human 
physiognomy , and articulate language, social existence 
and religious feeling, etc.. lose their value or become 
merely relative as soon as we have recourse to a thor- 
oughgoing comparison founded on facts. In this, how- 
ever, wc must not. as is usual, confine our attention to 
the most highly cultivated Europeans, but must also take 
into the account those types of man which approach 
most nearly to the animals and which have had no op- 
portunity of raising themselves from the rude, primitive, 
natural state to the grade of the civilized man. In such 
a study as this, just as in the investigation of the animal 
mind, we at once arrive at the knowledge of quite dif- 
ferent things from what the closet philosophers in their 
pretentious but hollow wisdom have hitherto endeavored 
to make us believe, and we ascertain immediately that 
the human being in his deepest degradation or in his 
rudest primitive state approaches the animal world so 
closely that we involuntarily ask ourselves where the 
true boundary line is to be drawn. Whoever then wishes 
lo form a judgment as to tlic true nature of man or his 
true positi,on in nature must not, as our philosophers and 
sot disant 'great thinkers' usually do, leave out of con- 
sideration the primeval origin and developmental history 
of man. and looking merely at his own little self in the 
delusive mirror of self-esteem, abstr;^ict therefrom a pitia- 
l)lc portrait of a man a'ffer the philosophical pattern. He 
must, on the contrary, grasp at nature itself with both 
hands and draw his knowledge from the innumerable 
springs wdiich flow, here in the richest abundance." 
Commenting further in this connection, he writes:. 
"The second volume of his (Buchner' s) 'Physiological 
Pictures' will also contain an, essay upon the mind of 
animals. In this essay it will be shown by numerous 
well authenticated examples and facts that the intellectual 
activities, faculties, feelings and tendencies of man are 
foreshadowed in an almost incredible degree in the ani- 
mal mind. Love, fidelity, gratitude, sense of duty, re- 
ligious feeling, friendship, conscientiousness and the high- 
est self-sacrifice, pity and the sense of justice and in- 
justice, as also pride, jealousy, hatred, malice, cunning 
and desire of revenge, are known to the animal, as well as 
reflection, prudence, the highest craft, precaution, care 
for the future, etc. — nay, even gormandizing, which is 
usually ascribed to man exclusively, exerts sway also 
over the animal. Animals know and practice the funda- 
mental laws and arrangements of the state and of society, 
of slavery and caste, of domestic economy, education and 
Kick nursing: they make the most wonderful structures 
in the way of houses, caves, nests, paths and dams; they 
hold assemblies and public deliberations and even courts 
of justice upon offenders; and by means of a compli- 
cated language of sounds, signs and gestures they arc 
able to concert their mutual action in the most accurate 
manner. In short, the majority of mankind have no 
knowledge or even suspicion wluit sojct of creature an 
animal is.'' ' ■ ' ' 
Darwin, in his great work, the "Descent of Man," hufi 
a paragraph in the chapter "On the Affinities and 
(.renc;ilogy of Man" whose import is .specially lo the 
point. lie remarks; "Some naturalists, from being 
deeply impressed with the mental and spiritual powers of 
niali, have divided the whole organic \vorld into three 
kingdoms — the human, the animal and the vegetable — 
thus giving to man a separate kingdom. Sr)iritual pow 
crs cannot be cunipared or classed by the naturalist, but 
he may endeavor to .^how, as I have done, that the mental 
I'actulties of man and the lower animals do not differ in 
kind, although immensely in degree. A difference in 
degree, however great, does not justify us in placing man 
in a distinct kingdom, as will perhaps be best illus- 
trated by comparing the mental powers of two insects, 
namely, a coccus or scale insect and an ant, which un- 
doubtedly belong to the same class. Tlie difference is 
here greater than, though of a somewhat dift'erent kind 
from, that between man and the highest mammal. The 
female coccus^ while young, attaches itself by its pro- 
boscis to a plant, sucks the sap. but never moves again, 
is fertilized and lays eggs, and this is its whole history. 
On the other hand, to describe the habits and mental 
powers of the worker -ants would require, as Pierre Huber 
has shown, a large volume. I may, however, briefly 
specify a few points. Ants certainly communicate infor- 
mation to each otlier and several unite for the same work 
or for games of ' play. They recognize their fellow ants 
after months of absence and feel sympathy for each other. 
They build great edifices, keep them clean, close the 
doors in the evening and post sentries. They make 
roads as well as tunnels under rivers and temporary 
bridges over them by clingiug together. They collect 
food for the community, and when an object too large 
for entrance is brought to the nest they enlarge the door 
and afterward build it up again. They store up seeds of 
which they prevent the germination and which, if damp 
are brought up to the ^iirffice t;o dry. They keep aphides 
and other insects as milch cows. They go out to battle 
in regular bands and freely sacrifice their hves for tKe 
common weal. They emigrate according to a precon- 
certed plan. They capture slaves. They move the eggs 
of their aphides, as well as their own eggs and cocoons, 
into warm parts of the nest, in order that they may be 
quickly hatched, and endless similar facts could be given* 
On the whole, the difference between the mental powers 
of an ant and a coccus is immense f yet no one has ever 
dreamed of placing.these insects in distinct classes, much, 
less in distinct kingdoms. No doubt the difference is 
bridged over by other insects; and this is not the case 
with man and the higher apes. But we have every rea- 
son to believe that the breaks in the series are simply 
the result of many forms having' become extinct." 
These extracts, given for the reader's consideration, 
present the convictions of men who have made this and 
related subjects a lifelong study, whose opportunities for 
acquiring information were relatively unlimited and 
whose mental equipment fitted peculiarly well to the 
exactions of their chosen field of research, all of which 
(|ualificd them for the making of sound conclusions. 
There is a comprehensive literature 011 this subject, ex- 
tremely interesting in itself, only incidentallj^ related to 
the subject of training, yet worthy of the attention of 
him who earnestly seeks a broad knowledge of the sub- 
ject. Before making pertinent investigation on either 
subject, it is not difficolt to believe that the dog acts 
whollj" by instinct and that the world is flat; after un- 
prejudiced investig-ation it is impossible to believe either.- 
Considered as a being, physically and mentally the dog 
develops much, after the manner of man, but with re- 
strictions imposed brj^ nature and by man which force 
him to recognize his inferiority and dependence through 
life. « 
Superior force is a quantity in life to which all- must 
yield. Men feel its mandates; even nations must bow 
to it. As between) man and dog, the latter from puppy- 
hood is taught submission and dependence. ' There is 
sufficient force at every point to repel all attempts which 
are obnoxious to man, his master. He recognizes this 
from an early age and grows into doghood with a full 
acceptance of it. The exceptional dog which betimes has 
the idea that he has force enough to meet force generally 
goes violently into the bourne provided for bad dogs, 
whence they never return. Heredity tends to" the per- 
petuation of the dotgs which are most submissive. The 
destruction of dogi> whicli arc of a bad or uiisuitablc 
temper would tend toward' the extermination of the most 
savage and the perpetuation of those which most amiably 
accepted the_ place in domestication assigned to them by 
man. Thus, 'they grwv up deferential by habit, dependent 
from inferiority and gregarious by nature. 
B. Watku.s. 
Sheep Dog Trials in Wales. 
Late in the summer inontilis of each yca,r the flockii of 
all Wales arc left to roam at will over the hcathjit-cov- 
ered hills, while the shepherds take their trusted collies 
and go to compete foi" the coveted shepherd's trophy, the 
Cambriiin Stake and Cup, and not only do the shepherds 
of Wales compete, but they ciome from the highlands of 
northern England, from far across the River Dec, to 
try the metal of the dogs of all counties at their skill at 
handling the flock. The events of the whole year are 
figured from these sheep dog trials, and as soon as they 
are run the shepherds commence to figure on their chances, 
to win in the coming year. These trials are their one 
relaxation from work, their one pleasure and their annual 
holiday. As one drives through the vales of this great 
sheep district,. the native will proudly point out that, "Yon 
dorg win cup three year gone," or of another dog that 
happens to he seen, " 'E's a likely brute, an' minds the 
flock weel, but na ceen go fer cup." This sport is their 
life, and these nimble collies are their daily helpmates 
which share every joy and every hardship with their 
mastei*. 
Nestled down in the beautiful liills of Wales near the 
ancient village of Llangollen is Plas-yn-Vivod, the home 
of Captain Best, of the Royal Navy, and in his park the 
trials are held, and to him is due 'the honor of having 
promoted this excellent form of sport, and each year he 
turns his place over to the public for the competition. 
The trials afford an opportunity of observing the won- 
derful training of the dogs, a chance for the shepherds 
to decide their disputes as to the superior intelligence 
of their animals, and a holiday for the entire country- 
side. 
Wale^j is the home of sheep dog trials, and the Cambrian 
.Stake is the coveted prize of all Great Britain, and to 
these simple shepherds it means more to win this stake 
than it does to some great horseman to Avin a Derby, for 
the work of these dogs is not a pastime with them, but 
it is their liA'elihood and really their life. 
The test consists of driving three sheep around and 
through a series of flags and gates, and finally into a 
small pen that has a very narrow opening, and all of this 
must be done by the dog alone, simply directed by the 
master, who stands near the pen. "The sheep used are 
selected from different Ifocks, and consequently strange, 
to each other, making tliein more difficult to handle than 
if they were all accustomed to running together. The 
small, wild Welsh sheep are also found much harder to 
handle, and consequently make a more severe test for the 
dogs. The field is a beautiful, hilly portion of Captain 
Best's park, perfectly suited to the sport, as it is a natural 
amphitheater, and so affords an excellent view for th'e 
spectators. The dogs are required to take the sheep 
over a course fully half a mile in length before they 
finally bring them to the goal, all of the course being in 
full view. Directly in front of the spectators and 
judges, the field drops away into a little hollow, and 
then rises to a steep incline to another field, and it is far 
up on this hill that the sheep are held in a pen, to be 
released when the word is givgn. 
The shepherd directs the contesting dog from a position 
near the judges' table, where a post is driven into the 
ground, to which a cord about 25 feet long is attached, A 
loop at the end of the cord is held on the arm of th'e 
contestant during thp competition, thus preventing his 
