The dispositions and characters of dogs, as well as their
intelligence, vary very much. Let me give a few instances of this.

When that benevolent man, Mr. Backhouse, went to Australia, in hopes
of doing good among the convicts, he was residing in the house of a
gentleman who had a son about four years of age. This boy strayed one
morning into the bush, and could not be found after a long search had
been made for him. In the evening a little dog, which had accompanied
the child, scratched at the door, and on its being opened showed
unmistakeable signs of wishing to be followed. This was done; and he
led the way to the child, who was at last found sitting by the side of
a river three or four miles from the house.

At Albany in Worcestershire, at the seat of Admiral Maling, a dog went
every day to meet the mail, and brought the bag in his mouth to the
house. The distance was about a half-a-quarter of a mile. The dog
usually received a meal of meat as his reward. The servants having, on
_one day only_, neglected to give him his accustomed meal, the dog on
the arrival of the next mail buried the bag, nor was it found without
considerable search.

M. D'Obsonville had a dog which he had brought up in India from two
months old; and having to go with a friend from Pondicherry to
Bengalore, a distance of more than nine hundred miles, he took the
animal along with him. "Our journey," says M. D'O., "occupied nearly
three weeks; and we had to traverse plains and mountains, and to ford
rivers, and go along by-paths. The animal, which had certainly never
been in that country before, lost us at Bengalore, and immediately
returned to Pondicherry. He went directly to the house of my friend,
M. Beglier, then commandant of artillery, and with whom I had
generally lived. Now the difficulty is not so much to know how the dog
subsisted on the road (for he was very strong, and able to procure
himself food), but how he should so well have found his way after an
interval of more than a month! This was an effort of memory greatly
superior to that which the human race is capable of exerting."

A gentleman residing in Denmark, Mr. Decouick, one of the king's privy
councillors, found that he had a remarkable dog. It was the habit of
Mr. Decouick to leave Copenhagen on Fridays for Drovengourd, his
country seat. If he did not arrive there on the Friday evening, the
dog would invariably be found at Copenhagen on Saturday morning, in
search of hi