MISCELLANEA 
383 
WONDERFUL INSTINCT OF WILD ANIMALS. 
Various interesting facts have been noted in relation to 
the demeanour of animals prior to a great convulsion. It 
was toward noon, beneath a clear and almost cloudless sky, 
with the sea-breeze freshly blowing, that the cities of Con¬ 
ception and Talcahuano, on the coast of South America, 
were desolated in 1835. At ten o’clock, two hours before 
their ruin, the inhabitants remarked with surprise, as alto¬ 
gether unusual, large flights of sea-fowl passing from the 
coast toward the interior; and the dogs at Talcahuano aban¬ 
doned the town before the shock which levelled its buildings 
was felt. Not an animal, it is believed, was in the place 
when the destruction came. In 1805, previous to the earth¬ 
quake at Naples, which took place in the night, but was most 
severely felt in the provinces, the oxen and cows began to 
bellow, the sheep and goats bleated strangely, the dogs 
howled terribly, and the horses fastened to their stalls leaped 
up, endeavouring to break the halters which attached them 
to the mangers. Rabbits and moles were seen to leave their 
burrows; birds rose, as if scared, from the places on which 
they had alighted; and reptiles left in clear daylight their 
subterranean retreats. Some faithful dogs, a few minutes 
before the first shock, awoke their sleeping masters by 
barking and pulling them, as if anxious to warn them of 
impending danger, and several persons were thus enabled to 
save themselves. On the recent occasion all the dogs in the 
neighbourhood of Vallo howled before the people were sen¬ 
sible of their danger. To account for these circumstances, it 
is conjectured that, prior to actual disturbance, noxious gases 
and other exhalations are emitted from the interior of the 
earth through crannies and pores of the surface invisible to 
the eye, which distress and alarm animals gifted with acute 
organs of smell. 
A TALE OF HORROR. 
Mr. -, we shall call him Mr. Vellum, of Melbourne, is 
blessed with the friendship of Mr.-, we shall call him 
Mr. Stockwhip, whose cattle-station is not a hundred miles 
from Echuca. Stockwhip is in the habit of sending down 
tongues, potted butter, rolled beef, and fifty other up-country 
niceties to his town friend as presents. On Tuesday last 
arrived at Vellum’s office a good-sized keg, the address-card 
in the usual well-known handwriting. It was late in 
the afternoon, just about time to start for Paradise Villa, 
South Yarra; the gift was safely stored in the buggy, and off 
