watchman, sees the fallen mule from the heights of the
clouds; the blind bats guided their flight without collision through the
inextricable labyrinth of threads devised by Spallanzani; the carrier
pigeon, at a hundred leagues from home, infallibly regains its loft
across immensities which it has never known; and within the limits of
its more modest powers a bee, the Chalicodoma, also adventures into the
unknown, accomplishing its long journey and returning to its group of
cells.

Those who have never seen a dog seeking truffles have missed one of the
finest achievements of the olfactory sense. Absorbed in his duties, the
animal goes forward, scenting the wind, at a moderate pace. He stops,
questions the soil with his nostrils, and, without excitement, scratches
the earth a few times with one paw. "There it is, master!" his eyes seem
to say: "there it is! On the faith of a dog, there are truffles here!"

He says truly. The master digs at the point indicated. If the spade goes
astray the dog corrects the digger, sniffing at the bottom of the hole.
Have no fear that stones and roots will confuse him; in spite of depth
and obstacles, the truffle will be found. A dog's nose cannot lie.

I have referred to the dog's speciality as a subtle sense of smell. That
is certainly what I mean, if you will understand by that that the nasal
passages of the animal are the seat of the perceptive organ; but is the
thing perceived always a simple smell in the vulgar acceptation of the
term--an effluvium such as our own senses perceive? I have certain
reasons for doubting this, which I will proceed to relate.

On various occasions I have had the good fortune to accompany a
truffle-dog of first-class capacities on his rounds. Certainly there was
not much outside show about him, this artist that I so desired to see at
work; a dog of doubtful breed, placid and meditative; uncouth,
ungroomed, and quite inadmissible to the intimacies of the hearthrug.
Talent and poverty are often mated.

His master, a celebrated _rabassier_[5] of the village, being convinced
that my object was not to steal his professional secrets, and so sooner
or later to set up in business as a competitor, admitted me of his
company, a favour of which he was not prodigal. From the moment of his
regarding me not as an apprentice, but merely as a curious spectator,
who drew and wrote about subterranean vegetable affairs, but had no wish
to carry to market my bagful of these