74 THE CAMEL 



few persons now dispute that animals possess some 

 power of reasoning. Animals may constantly be seen 

 to pause, deliberate, and resolve. It is a significant 

 fact that the more the habits of any particular animal 

 are studied by a naturalist, the more he attributes to 

 reason and the less to unlearnt instincts.' That Darwin 

 must have been alluding to scientists and lovers of 

 animals, and not to the masses, as to general know- 

 ledge of this fact, I cannot help thinking. For the 

 amount of ignorance that still prevails on the subject is 

 positively marvellous ; and I have heard educated and 

 presumably intelligent people scout the very idea of such, 

 even among dogs and horses, as utterly ridiculous. As 

 to the significance of the latter fact there can be no 

 question whatever. I have been in close contact with 

 many animals viz. horses, dogs, cats, elephants, mules, 

 donkeys, oxen, camels and in all but the two latter 

 I have seen unmistakable signs of intelligence and 

 reasoning. 



The camel That the dog and horse, owing to their constant 

 from tfme association with man from the earliest days, and owing 



immemo- 



rial to the mutual bond of sympathy between them, which 



has strengthened these ties considerably, have un- 

 doubtedly developed the natural instincts inherent in 

 them into an intelligence which clearly amounts to a 

 distinct form of reason, I venture to think there can be 

 little doubt. And that the distinction between their 

 reason and man's is not radical, but due to a difference 

 of condition and to a want of inner and upward develop- 

 ment and expansion, is easy enough to understand. But 

 as far back as we can trace, and even further, if I may 

 use the anomaly, surmise and conjecture can well imagine 



