THE ELEMENTS OF MIND 225 



Carrumpaw, cannot but wonder at the remarkable 

 shrewdness shown by this old leader in baffling 

 for years the tigers that hung upon his tracks (17). 

 Nansen states that the seals, before* man invaded 

 the Arctics, occupied the inner ice-floes to avoid 

 the polar bear, but after man came they took to 

 living on the outer floes in order to escape the 

 persecutions of this new and more fearful enemy. 

 Domestic animals, when first turned out in new 

 regions, often die from eating poisonous weeds, 

 but in some way soon learn to avoid them. Many 

 animals, when pursuing other animals, or when 

 being pursued, display a knowledge of facts very 

 little understood by the majority of mankind, such 

 as of places where scent lies or is obliterated, and 

 the effects of wind in carrying evidence of their 

 presence to their enemies. The hunted roebuck 

 or hare will make circles, double on its own tracks, 

 take to water, and fling itself for considerable dis- 

 tances through the air as cleverly as if it had read 

 up all the theory of scent in a book. According 

 to the London Spectator, one of the large African 

 elephants in the Zoological Gardens of that city 

 restores to its entertainers all the bits of food 

 which on being thrown to him fall alike out of his 

 reach and theirs. He points his proboscis straight 

 at the food, and blows it along the floor to the feet 

 of those who have thrown it. He clearly knows 

 what he is about, for if he does not blow hard enough 

 to land the food the first time, he blows harder 

 and harder until he does. The cacadoos (parrots) 

 of Australia, before descending upon a field or 



15 



