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Show THE YARMOUTH DOG AND CAT. The Yarmouth water-dog deserves a special notice, although not entirely peculiar to the country. For its sagacity the writer can vouch. One instance may serve to illustrate the general instincts of the class. A dog of this kind was kept at the fen? pumping mill, at the top of Breydon Water. In the winter his favorite pursuit was to go out by himself, and search in the rough stones which face the Breydon wall for wounded wild-fowl; these always, if possible, creep into some nook or corner. When the wind was northeast, and many ducks in the country, he sometimes carried home eight or nine wild fowl of various kinds in the same morning. After leaving these? at the mill with his master, he returned of his own accord to the place whence he had taken it, proceeding regularly in his search, and every time recommencing exactly where he left off. As he traveled to and fro on the marsh wall, he would, if unloaded wag his tail and acknowledge the notice of any one who spoke to him; but no sooner had he obtained booty than he seems to consider himself the guardian of a treasure, and to distrust every one. As soon as a man appeared to be coming toward him he left the wall, and crossing a wide dike, betook himself to the marshes, and went the longest way home. It is generally supposed that a cat has a unconquerable aversion to wetting its feet. There are many authentic exceptions to this notion. While we were staying at the Wherry Hotel, Mulford?, we were often on the banks from which the anglers depart for the sport, which is here of the best. A cat belonging to the house, tempted down by the fry and smaller fish thrown out of the baskets of the captors, sometimes found herself so much engaged on board a boat as to be unaware that it had proceeded far into the lake before her knowledge of her abduction had become a fact. Heedless of water and its consequences, however the? she? would mount the gunwale, look for an instant in the direction of the hotel, and then take a header? and swim, as well as any dog, toward the landing stage, mount the ladder, wring herself mopwise and shortly afterward be found purring about with a perfectly dry skin. -All the Year Round. |