WATSON'S CROSSING. 73 



gone. I could not but laugh immoderately at the pre- 

 cipitancy of its retreat after nipping my thumb. The 

 snake was really an arrant coward. But to return to the 

 question : if the snake was not thinking, and as prede- 

 termined to bite as I was to touch, what was the creat- 

 ure's brain doing during those anxious moments ? Can 

 we imagine any other than a mental activity such as is 

 known to be possessed by man ? "What intelligence or 

 mind may be, I have not the most remote conception, 

 beyond its intimate connection with the brain ; but after 

 a lifetime spent in studying our familiar wild animals, I 

 have utterly failed to find other mental differences be- 

 tween them and mankind than those of degree. 



It has been suggested that enthusiasm on the part 

 of the observer may "saturate its object . . . with 

 thoughts, ideas, and emotions foreign to its intrinsic 

 nature." Is not this an admission that " thoughts, ideas, 

 and emotions," not foreign, may be generated by a 

 snake's brain? If so, I have erred only in misinter- 

 preting, quite insignificantly, their mental powers. 



When this same snake is speeding through the water, 

 or creeping cautiously through the meadow - grass, in 

 pursuit of prey, it knows that speed is necessary to capt- 

 ure a fish, and caution required to secure a mouse ; and 

 during the act, what thought but that a given plan, 

 learned by experience, must be followed out ? How- 

 does man differ from all this ? Does not the hunter, 

 in pursuit of game, follow much the same rules, and, so 

 far as his proper business is concerned, think practically 

 the same thoughts ? 



To return to the irate serpent of the raft : it had no 

 4 



