28 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLA Y 



the beaver, the social instinct is seen in by far the 

 most complete development known among the 

 higher animals. The work of the beaver colony, 

 apart from the astonishing engineering skill and 

 knowledge of the use of different material it dis- 

 plays, their employment of water transport, and 

 their control and retention, as a means of protec- 

 tion, of streams and ponds, is alike in motive and 

 purpose as perfect an example of common and 

 organised labour for a common good, as the associ- 

 ated labour by which the population of Holland 

 maintain the dykes and dams. . The whole beaver 

 village works at the dam, and the equally wonder- 

 ful, though less known, engineering device of the 

 beaver canal, to which logs are rolled, and then 

 towed up to the ' lodges,' is the joint work of the 

 colony. When this is made, and the requisite area 

 of deep water secured by the dam, the families work 

 separately at private house-building. Thus the dis- 

 tinction between public and private duties is recognised 

 and maintained. 



Yet this single instance of a highly-organised 

 society among creatures of high development is so 

 far exceeded by the social life of insects, that the 

 problem of instinct seems for the moment beyond 

 solution. If deer and antelopes do not make -pro- 

 gress because their wants are already satisfied, on what 



