EDUCABILITY OF ANIMALS. 
483 
which had been produced in London by a female of the celebrated 
St. Bernard’s breed. The young animal was brought to Scot- 
land, where it was never observed to give any particular tokens 
of a power of tracking footsteps until winter, when the ground 
became covered with snow. It then shewed the most active in- 
clination to follow footsteps ; and so great was its power of doing 
so under these circumstances, that, when its master had crossed 
a field in the most curvilinear way, and caused other persons to 
cross his path in all directions, it nevertheless followed his course 
with the greatest precision. Here was a perfect revival of the 
habit of its Alpine fathers, with a degree of speciality as to ex- 
ternal conditions, at which, it seems to us, we cannot sufficiently 
wonder. 
The principle of what may be called a transmission of domesti- 
cated habits is to be observed in other animals. “ English sheep, 
probably from the richness of the pastures of that country, feed 
very much together; while Scotch sheep are obliged to extend and 
scatter themselves over their hills for the better discovery of food. 
Yet the English sheep, on being transferred to Scotland, keep their 
old habit of feeding in a mass, though so little adapted to their new 
country : so do their descendants ; and the English sheep is not 
thoroughly naturalised into the necessities of his place till the third 
generation. The same thing may be observed as to the nature of 
his food that is observed in his mode of seeking it. When 
turnips were first introduced from England into Scotland, it was 
only the third generation which heartily adopted this diet, the first 
having been starved into an acquiescence in it # .” The Norwegian 
pony is accustomed in his own country to obey the voice of his 
master, rather than the bridle ; accordingly, when English-born 
progeny of this animal is taken in hand by a breaker, unusual 
difficulty is found in what is called giving it a mouth, although it 
is singularly docile and obedient. In Norway, the pony is ac- 
customed to traverse unenclosed and almost pathless wilds ; ac- 
cordingly the English-born progeny has no idea of such a thing 
as enclosures, and will be seen brushing through a hedge with the 
greatest coolness, as if no such thing were in its way. We have 
also been informed that the progeny of an American horse, intro- 
duced into England, ambles as American horses generally do, a 
kind of walk to which the English horse can only be trained with 
difficulty ; and the same thing is observed as to the habit which the 
Irish horses have of leaping with their whole four feet off the 
ground at once, a movement occasioned by the numerous bogs 
which come in the way of an Irish horseman. This is a mode of 
Thoughts and Recollections, 
