INGENUITY OF TWO GOATS. 95 



LETTER XII. 



FROM EMILY TO CAROLINE. 



MY DEAR CAROLINE, 



The story of your goats proves, beyond doubt, 

 that some animals are capable of reflection ; and its 

 probability is confirmed by a similar instance of con- 

 trivance in two of the same species, in a different part 

 of the world. At Ardinglass, in Red Bay, near Glen- 

 ann, in Ireland, two goats happened to be moving to- 

 wards each other, over a deadful precipice, on a path 

 so narrow that it was impossible for them to pass each 

 other, and still less practicable for either to tm^n round : 

 the least attempt to effect the one or the other of these 

 movements would have precipitated them from the 

 rock, which is there four hundred feet perpendicular. 

 In this dilemma, they looked at each other with great 

 seriousness for a length of time, as if they were deli- 

 berating how to extricate themselves from the diffi- 

 culty ; which at length they contrived to do, by one 

 of them lying down prostrate, whilst the other walked 

 over his body, each afterwards pursuing his own course 

 with perfect composure.* 



* Mr. George Black, brother to the celebrated chemist of 

 Edinburgh, was an eye-witness of this fact. 



