The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1846-01-16
NATURAL. HISTORY.


The following anecdotes have
been collected together, from the
belief that they are too wonderful
to be lost.
Horses have been known to pre-
dict frost by going to black
smiths the day before to be rough
shod. Franconi tells story of
mare who would never perform on
the stage unless she was on the side
of the French. Her spirit of nation
atty was such, that if she was car
rying an Englishman or an Austrian,
she would invariably throw him and
then run over to the side of the en-
peror. In this way she had often
thrown Butcher and the Duke of
Wellington. Napoleon hearing of
this extraordinary trait of patriotism
in a horse, went expressly to the
Cerquc, and having witnessed the
fact with his own imperial eyes, Of
fered Franconi whole regiment of
cavalry in exchange for the mare /;
but the French Ducrow, to his Gre
dit let it be said, would not part
with her. Napoleon was piqued,
but afterwards decorated the mare
with tina Grand Cross Of the Legion
of Honor.
Pigs have been taught to spell. A
singular anecdots is told of one, that
Individually proves the force of early
habit in animals generally, but in a
pig especially. A learned sow, that
was called Bacon would always
spell Vauxhall with a w. This was
always matter of wonderment, un-
til it was ascertained that she had
been born on market day in Smith
field market.-The inveterate mis-
use Of the w at once confirmed the
Cockney origin.
Capt. Parry tells story Of a Polar
Bear, which puts the instinct Of this
animal beyond all doubt; he had
given it to one of his sailors, who
with this small capital started show
man, and having taught the bear to
dance, used to take it about the
streets. The sailor afterwards as
sured Capt. Parry that he never
could get the bear to pass a BARRIERS
shop. He accounted for this by say
ing, that as Bears Grease was sold
only at these places, the animal was
in constant state of fear, lest il
should be its fate to be sold in six.
penny pots
The instinct Of the Dog, and Cat
and the Rat, is so well known thai
one anecdote, we think, will suffice
to illustrate the three. A terrier
and a TOM were pursuing large
rat down street. The rat was al.
most caught, when it lodged sud-
denly and ran into a sausage shop
The cat and dog stopped convulsive,
ly at the door, and looking up at the
yards of sausages, hung down theil
heads and skunk away quite terror
stricken. This annecdote indubita.
bly, shows that selfpreservation is the
law of nature, besides proving thai
the feeling of veneraton for tile deac
is much stronger in animals than il
men.
The following anccdote is so as.
tonishing that we cannot help re.
peating it. We shonld really doub
the truth of it. unless it was supper.
ted by the testimony of the celebra.
ted Walker. Mr.. Tidemann, the ia
nous Saxon dentist, had a valuabl,
tortoise shell cat that for days hat
done nothing but moan. Guessing
the cause he looked into its moutl
and seeing decayed tooth, soon re-
lieved it of its pains. The follow
ing morning there were at least tel
cats outside his door-the day ate
that twenty, and they went on in
creasing at such rate, that he wa
obliged to keep bulldog to driv'
them away. A cat who had tn,
toothache would come any numbe
of miles to submit its jaws to him.
1t would come down the chime,
even, and not leave the room till h,
had taken its tooth out. 1t grew
such nuisance atlast, he never wa
free of one of these feline patients
However, being one morning YER
nervous, he broke accidentally tn
jaw of big tabby. The news o
this spread like wildGre. Not a sin
gle cat came to him afterwards. |
is extraordinary how the cats in tn,
above instance acted like human be-
ings!
True hdcpendence.-Soon afte
his establishment in Philadelphia
Franklin was offered piece for pub