The Descent of Man 41 



tliree other shells remained within a few inches of the mouth. In 

 about five minutes the crab brought out the shell which had fallen 

 in, and carried it away to the distance of a foot : it then saw the 

 three other shells lying near, and evidently thinking that they might 

 likewise roll in, carried them to the spot where it had laid the first.' 

 —Vol. i. p. 334. 



Mr. Darwin adds or quotes the astonishing remark, 'It 

 Avould, I think, be difiicult to distinguish this act from one 

 performed by man by the aid of reason. Again, he tells us : — 



' Mr. Lonsdale informs me that he placed a pair of land-shells 

 { Helix 2^0 jnatia), one of which was weakly, into a small and ill-pro- 

 vided garden. After a short time the strong and healthy individual 

 disappeared, and was traced by its track of slime over a wall into an 

 adjoining well-stocked garden. Mr. Lonsdale concluded that it had 

 deserted its sickly mate ; but after an absence of twenty-four hours it 

 returned, and apparently communicated the result of its successful 

 exploration, for both then started along the same track and dis- 

 appeared over the wall.'^ — Vol. i. p. 325. 



Whatever may be the real value of the statements 

 quoted, they harmonise with a matter which is incontestable. 

 "We refer to the fact that the intelligence of brutes, be they 

 high or be they low, is essentially one in kind, there being a 

 singular parity between animals belonging to groups widely 

 different in type of structure and in degree of development. 



Apart from the small modifications which experience occa- 

 sionally introduces into the habits of animals — as sometimes 

 occurs after man has begun to frequent a newly-discovered 

 island — it cannot be denied that, looking broadly over the 

 Avhole animal kingdom, there is no evidence of advance in 

 mental power on the part of brutes. This absence of pro- 

 gression in animal intelligence is a very important considera- 

 tion, and it is one which does not seem to be adverted to by 

 Mr. Darwin, though the facts detailed by him are exceedingly 

 suggestive of it. 



When we speak of this absence of progression we do not, 



