AN AUSTRALIAN DOG-STORY.
[To TEX EDITOR 01 THE "SPECTATOR")
SIR,—Seeing the great interest which many of your readers take in the study of canine character and intelligence, I think perhaps the following incident is worth- recording. Whilst walking with a lady friend along Studley Park Road, Kew (a residential suburb of Melbourne), on a very quiet afternoon some time ago, we were surprised by a large St. Bernard dog, which came up to us and deliberately pawed my leg several times. Our perplexity at his extraordinary behaviour was perhaps not unmixed with a little misgiving, for he was an animal of formidable size and strength ; but as he gave evident signs of satisfaction at our noticing him, and pro- ceeded to trot on in front—at intervals looking round to make sure we were following—we became interested. When we had followed him about forty yards, he stopped before a door in a high garden-wall, and, looking round anxiously to see that we were noticing, reached up his paw in the direction of the latch. On stretching forth my band to unfasten the door, his extreme pleasure was exhibited in a most unmis- takable manner; but when he saw me try in vain to open it he became quiet, and looked at me with an expression so manifestly anxious that I could no more have left the poor animal thus than I could have left a helpless little child in a similar position. With eager attention and expectancy he listened while I knocked, and when at last some one was heard coming down the garden path, he bounded about with every sign of unlimited joy.
Now here was one of the so-called "brutes," which, failing to get in at a certain door, cast about for a way out of the difficulty, and seeing us some distance down the road (we were the only persons in sight at the time), he had come to us, attracted our attention, taken us to the door, and told us he wanted it opened. We both agreed that the animal had all through shown a play of emotion and intelligence comparable to that of a human being; and, indeed, we felt so much akin to the noble creature that we have both, since then, been very loath to class dogs as "inferior animals."—I am, Sir, &c.,
GEORGE EASTGATE.
555 Collins Street, Melbourne, March 23rd.
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