THE LOWER KIND OF MEMORY 119 



but on coming by chance to a spot with very 

 marked features, where he had once hidden a nut, 

 then I think the sight of the place might bring back 

 the old impression. 



I have often remarked when riding a nervous horse, 

 that he will invariably become alarmed, and some- 

 times start at nothing, on arriving at some spot 

 where something had once occurred to frighten him. 

 The sight of the spot brings up the image of the 

 object or sound that startled him ; or, to adopt a 

 later interpretation of memory, the past event is re- 

 constructed in his mind. Again, I have noticed with 

 dogs, when one is brought to a spot where on a 

 former occasion he has battled with or captured 

 some animal, or where he has met with some ex- 

 citing adventure, he shows by a sudden change in 

 his manner, in eyes and twitching nose, that it has all 

 come back to him, and he appears as if looking for 

 its instant repetition. 



We see that we possess this lower kind of memory 

 ourselves that its process is the same in man and 

 dog and squirrel. I am, for instance, riding or walk- 

 ing in a part of the country which all seems un- 

 familiar, and I have no recollection of ever having 

 passed that way before ; but by-and-by I come to 

 some spot where I have had some little adventure, 

 some mishap, tearing my coat or wounding my 

 hand in getting through a barbed wire fence ; or 

 where I had discovered that I had lost something, 



