11. Odd Things.
§1.
The remarkable ‘homing instinct’ of an ass, taken
from a footnote (the fifth) to p.552 of: ‘An Introduction to Entomology’, Kirby
& Spence. Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts. London, 7th
Ed., 1858.
The following striking anecdote
of this last species of instinct, in an animal not famed for sagacity, was
related to me by Lieutenant (now Lieut.-Colonel) Alderson (Royal Engineers),
who was personally acquainted with the facts. — In March, 1816, an ass, the
property of Captain Dundas, R. N., then at Malta, was
shipped on board the Ister frigate, Captain Forrest, bound from Gibraltar for
that island. The vessel having struck on some sands off the Point de Gat, at
some distance from the shore, the ass was thrown overboard to give it a chance
of swimming to land —a poor one, for the sea was running so high that a boat
which left the ship was lost. A few days afterwards, however, when the gates of
Gibraltar were opened in the morning, the
ass presented himself for admittance, and proceeded to the stable of Mr. Weeks,
a merchant, which he had formerly occupied, to the no small surprise of this
gentleman, who imagined that from some accident the animal had never been
shipped on board the Ister. On the return of this vessel to repair, the mystery
was explained ; and it turned out that Valiante (so the ass was called) had not
only swum safely to shore, but, without guide, compass, or travelling map, had
found his way from Point de Gat to Gibraltar, a distance of more than two
hundred miles, which he had never traversed before, through a mountainous and
intricate country, intersected by streams, and in so short a period that he
could not have made one false turn. His not having been stopped on the road was
attributed to the circumstance of his having been formerly used to whip
criminals upon, which was indicated to the peasants, who have a superstitious
horror of such asses, by the holes in his ears, to which the persons flogged
were tied.
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