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Show BANDA ORIENTAL. Nov. 1833. quartz crystals with their edges blunted from attrition, and mixed with gravel on the sea-beach. Each crystal was about :five lines in diameter, and from an inch to an inch and a half in length. Many of them had a small canal extending from one extremity to the other, perfectly cylindrical, and of a size that readily admitted a coarse thread, or a piece of :fine catgut. Their colour was red or dull white. The natives were acquainted with this structure in crystals. I have mentioned these circumstances, because, although no crystallized body is at present known to assume this form, it may lead some future traveller to investigate the real nature of such stones. While staying at this estancia, I was amused with what I saw and heard of the shepherd dogs of the country.* When riding, it is a common thing to meet a large.flock of sheep guarded by one or two dogs, at the distance of some miles from any house or man. I often wondered how so :firm a friendship had been established. The method of education consists in separating the puppy, while very young, from the bitch, and in accustoming it to its future companions. An ewe is held three or four times a day for the little thing to suck; and a nest of wool is made for it in the sheep-pen; at no time is it allowed to associate with other dogs, or with the children of the family. The puppy is, moreover, generally castrated ; so that, when grown up, it can scarcely have any feelings in common with the rest of its kind. From this education it has no wish to leave the flock, and just as another dog will defend its master, man, so will these, the sheep. It is amusing to observe, when approaching a flock, how the dog immediately advances barking, and the sheep all close in his rear, as if round the oldest ram. These dogs are also easily taught to bring home the flock, at a certain hour in the evening. Their most troublesome fault, when young, is their desire of playing with the sheep ; for • M. D'Orbigny has given nearly a similar account of these dogs. vol. i., p. 175. Nov. 1833. SHEPHERD DOGS. in their sport they sometimes gallop their poor subjects most unmercifully. The shepherd dog comes to the house every day for some ~eat, and imm~diately it is given him, he skulks away as 1f ashamed of himself. On these occasions the house-dogs are very tyrannical, and the least of them will attack and pursue the stranger. 'rhe minute, however, the latter has reached the flock, he turns round, and begins to bark, and then all the house-dogs take very quickly to their heels. In a similar manner a whole pack of the hungry wild dogs will scarcely ever (and I was told by some, never) venture to attack a flock guarded even by one of these faithful shepherds. The whole account appears to me a curious instance of the pliability of the affections in the dog race · and yet wh e ther W.i ld, or however educated, with a mutual ' feeling o'f respect or fear for those that are fulfilling their instinct of a~sociation. . For we can understand on no principle, the wild dogs bemg driven away by the single one with its flock, except that they consider, from some confused notion t~at ~he one t~us associated. gains power, as if in company' With Its own kmd. F. Cuvier has observed, that all animals that readily enter into domestication, consider man as a member of their society, and thus fulfil their instinct of association. In the above case the shepherd dogs rank the sheep as their fellow brethren ; and the wild dogs, though knowing that the individual sheep are not dogs, but are good to eat, yet partly consent to this view, when seeing them in a flock with a shepherd dog at their head. One evening a" domidor" (a subduer of horses) came for the purpose of breaking in some colts. I will describe the preparatory steps, for I believe they have not been mentioned by other travellers. A troop of wild young horses is driven into the corral, or large enclosure of stakes, and the door is shut. We will suppose that one man alone has to catch and mount a horse, which as yet had never felt bridle or saddle. I conceive, except by a Gaucho, such a feat would |