88 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
his virtues are his own. Let us turn our eyes from these sadden- 
ing scenes, where man exploits the sagacity of the dog to purposes 
so inhuman ; rather rest in sympathy with the acts of sublime de- 
votion in the dogs of St. Bernard. Poor dogs of charity ! so hap- 
py and so proud of having been chosen to rescue the traveler from 
the avalanche that has engulfed him, or to guide his steps through 
the abysses and hurricanes of snow. He was a grand artist and a 
profound thinker, that Charlet, who made the soldier say, in his 
simple language, What is best in man is the dog ! When ignoble 
civilization shall one day be brought before the tribunal of history, 
its advocate will successfully adduce the dog of St. Bernard as an 
attenuating circumstance. It has need of it. 
I have heard in Africa that the French government had thought 
of employing the hunting dog in the conquest of Algiers. It ap- 
pears that the system was tried at Bougie, where every one has 
heard of the exploits of the free company that guarded this place, 
and confided the defense of its block-house to the company of 
dogs. I have known the illustrious Blanchette, the Attila of 
Kabyla, the most noble incarnation of canine bravery. A large, 
white greyhound, that walked then only on three legs, having for- 
gotten the fourth in a hand-to-hand struggle with a chief of the 
enemy. Le Zephire admired her, and shared his meals with her. 
The lustre of her services had even drawn upon herself and com- 
rades the gratitude of the administration. It had been decided in 
a day of justice, that the company of dogs having behaved nobly 
before the enemy, there should be served to it in future a daily 
ration of a pound of bread per head. Unfortunately this decision, 
so sensible and just, only once took effect. Le Zephire, who 
abuses every thing, even the innocence of the commissary, found 
means to increase the above ration by half a litre of wine, under 
pretext that the canine race needed not less than man a fortifying 
tonic against the enervating heat of the climate. But as it was 
proved afterward, by an authentic experiment, in presence of the 
military intendant, that the canine race had been unworthily ca- 
lumniated in attributing to it the Bacchic appetites of the virtuous 
Cato, authority, furious at its deception, exceeded justice in its 
vengeance. It suppressed the solid at the same time as the fluid 
