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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