Chap. II. MENTAL POWEES. 47 



ing and notice which the travellers received that the ice 

 was becoming thin and dangerous. Now, did the dogs 

 act thus from the experience of each individual, or from 

 the example of the older and wiser dogs, or from an 

 inherited habit, that is from an instinct ? This instinct 

 might possibly have arisen since the time, long ago, 

 when dogs were first employed by the natives in draw- 

 ing their sledges ; or the Arctic wolves, the parent-stock 

 of the Esquimaux dog, may have acquired this instinct, 

 impelling them not to attack their prey in a close pack 

 when on thin ice. Questions of this kind are most 

 difficult to answer. 



So many facts have been recorded in various works 

 shewing that animals possess some degree of reason, 

 that I will here give only two or three instances, authen- 

 ticated by Kengger, and relating to American monkeys, 

 which stand low in their order. He states that when 

 he first gave eggs to his monkeys, they smashed them 

 and thus lost much of their contents ; afterwards thev 

 gently hit one end against some hard body, and picked 

 off the bits of shell with their fingers. After cutting 

 themselves only once with any sharp tool, they would 

 not touch it again, or would handle it with the greatest 

 care. Lumps of sugar were often given them wrapped 

 up in paper ; and Eengger sometimes put a live wasp 

 in the paper, so that in hastily unfolding it they got 

 stung ; after this had once happened, they always first 

 held the packet to their ears to detect any movement 

 within. Any one who is not convinced by such facts as 

 these, and by what he may observe with his own dogs, 

 that animals can reason, would not be convinced by 

 anything that I could add. Nevertheless I will give 

 one case with respect to dogs, as it rests on two distinct 

 observers, and can hardly depend on the modification 

 of any instinct. 



