at of Real del Monte, carried
out with them some English greyhounds of the best breed, to hunt the
hares which abound in that country. The great platform which is the
scene of sport is at an elevation of about nine thousand feet above the
level of the sea, and the mercury in the barometer stands habitually at
the height of about nineteen inches. It was found that the greyhounds
could not support the fatigues of a long chase in this attenuated
atmosphere, and before they could come up with their prey, they lay down
gasping for breath; but these same animals have produced whelps which
have grown up, and are not in the least degree incommoded by the want of
density in the air, but run down the hares with as much ease as the
fleetest of their race in this country.

The fixed and deliberate stand of the pointer has with propriety been
regarded as a mere modification of a habit, which may have been useful
to a wild race accustomed to wind game, and steal upon it by surprise,
first pausing for an instant, in order to spring with unerring aim. The
faculty of the retriever, however, may justly be regarded as more
inexplicable and less easily referable to the instinctive passions of
the species. M. Majendie, says a French writer in a recently published
memoir, having learnt that there was a race of dogs in England which
stopped and brought back game of their own accord, procured a pair, and
having obtained a whelp from them, kept it constantly under his eyes,
until he had an opportunity of assuring himself that, without having
received any instruction, and on the very first day that it was carried
to the chase, it brought back game with as much steadiness as dogs which
had been schooled into the same manoeuvre by means of the whip and
collar.

_Attributes of animals in their relation to man._--Such attainments, as
well as the habits and dispositions which the shepherd's dog and many
others inherit, seem to be of a nature and extent which we can hardly
explain by supposing them to be modifications of instincts necessary for
the preservation of the species in a wild state. When such remarkable
habits appear in races of this species we may reasonably conjecture that
they were given with no other view than for the use of man and the
preservation of the dog, which thus obtains protection.

As a general rule, I fully agree with M. F. Cuvier, that, in studying
the habits of animals, we must attempt, as far as possible, to refer
their