tions were even pleasant, and I fancied that I was in a delicious meadow.

A fearful change succeeded. I found myself in a well-known burial-vault,—

"Girt by parent, brother, friend,

Long since number'd with the dead."

And there was that grim feature still claiming me, and the long lean arms were stretched out to grapple me, and the grasp entered into my soul. I turned to make one desperate effort at escape, and, opening my eyes, I found myself still stretched on the dry boards. My companion was shaking me by the shoulder, and inquiring, with something like reproach, if I thought that was the way to get the great fish into the well.

PART II.

QUADRUPEDS, ETC.

DOGS.

"The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart."

LEAR.

YES, dogs are honest creatures and the most delightful of fourfooted beings. The brain and nervous system may be more highly developed in the Anthropoïd apes, and even in some of the monkevs: but for affectionate, though humble companionship, nay friendship; for the amiable spirit that is on the watch to anticipate every wish of his master-for the most devoted attachment to him, in prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness, an attachment always continued unto death; and, frequently failing not, even when the once warm hand that patted him is clay-cold; what we had almost said who-can equal these charming familiars? Your dog will, to please you, do that which is positively painful to him. Hungry though he be, he will leave his food for you; he will quit the strongest temptation for you; he will lay down his life for you. Truly spake he who said, "Man is the God of the dog."

Of all the conquests over the brute creation that man has made, the domestication of the dog may be regarded as the most complete, if not the most useful: it is the only animal that has followed him all over the earth. And to see how these noble animals are treated by savages civilized as well as uncivilized; kicked, spurned, harnessed to heavy carriages, half-starved, cudgelled, they still follow the greater brute that lords it over them, and if he condescends to smile upon them how they bound in gladness! if he, by some inexplicable obliquity of good feeling, in a moment of forgetfulness caresses them, they are beside themselves with joy.

As a whole their lot seems to be the worst, if it is cast among savage or imperfectly-civilized nations. When Lawson was among the North-American Indians, he was present at a great feast where was store of loblolly and other medleys, made of Indian grain, stewed peaches, bear-venison, &c. ;" when all the viands

were brought in "the first figure began with kicking out all the dogs, which are seemingly wolves, made tame with starving and beating; they being the worst dog-masters in the world ;-so that it is an infallible cure for sore eyes ever to see an Indian's dog fat." The tribe who exercised this summary calcitration on the poor dogs, that had most probably contributed not a little to the venison part of the entertainment, rejoiced in the appropriate name of the Whacksaws or Warsaws; and yet these same Indians delighted in feeding up their horses till they were comparable to nothing more aptly than an English prize-ox. Though much advanced in the scale of civilization, the Javanese, according to Dr. Horsfield, seem to be little better dog-masters than the Waxsaws; for he remarks that the poor brutes, we mean the dogs, are not cared for, and are ill-treated, so that their famishing condition is disgusting to Europeans. This is the more extraordinary as many of these dogs pursue the Java deer called the Kidang with great ardour and courage. They are led in slips and loosed when they come upon the scent. Away they go, and the hunters, who follow more quietly, generally find the deer at bay and the hounds going gallantly into him. This is no joke, for the male Kidang makes a capital fight with his tusks, wounding his assailants severely, often fatally. "The sportsmen," says the Doctor, whose book is full of interesting passages, uniformly are provided with remedies and applications, and by a simple suture attempt to unite those wounds which are not immediately fatal. In this operation they frequently succeed and preserve their most valuable dogs." But even this small care appears to be the exception to the rule. The natives of Java, like other Mahommedans, entertain prejudices unfavourable to dogs; they rarely treat them with kindness, or allow them to approach their persons; and it is only in extraordinary instances, or when they contribute to their amusement, that they feed or care for them." To be sure, as a set off, they rarely show attachment to their masters, and no wonder; even Bill Sykes's dog could not carry his otherwise unqualified obedience to the length of getting over his very particular objection to being drowned.

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On the other hand, the good dog-master considers his fourfooted follower as his friend, his other self, his duppelganger, so that "Love me, love my dog," has passed into a proverb which has sometimes led to deadly results: we need only allude to the fatal duel between Colonel Montgomery and Captain Macnamara. Nor can it be wondered at that a man should feel strongly for the faithful animal that distinguishes him from all others, an animal that may be a burr but is hardly ever a bore. Now and then, indeed, an ill-bred cur will, like Launce's Crab, thrust him