364 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



inclined plane whereby to reach the rim. A quantity of 

 the rubbish had also been thrown into the pot, with the 

 effect of raising the level of the honey that remained to 

 near the rim of the pot ; but, of course, the latter fact may 

 have been due to accident, and not to design.^ This is a 

 case in which mal-observation does not seem to have been 

 likely. 



Powelsen, a writer on Iceland, has related an account 

 of the intelligence displayed by the mice of that country, 

 which has given rise to a difference of competent opinion, 

 and which perhaps can hardly yet be said to have been 

 definitely settled. What Powelsen said is that the mice 

 collect in parties of from six to ten, select a flat piece of 

 dried cow-dung, pile berries or other food upon it, then 

 with united strength drag it to the edge of any stream 

 they wish to cross, launch it, embark, and range them- 

 selves round the central heap of provisions with their heads 

 joined over it, and their tails hanging in the water, 

 perhaps serving as rudders. Pennant afterwards gave 

 credit to this account, observing that in a country where 

 berries were scarce, the mice were compelled to cross 

 streams for distant forages.^ Dr. Hooker, however, in his 

 ' Tour in Iceland,' concludes that the account is a pure 

 fabrication. Dr. Henderson, therefore, determined on 

 trying to arrive at the truth of the matter, with the fol~ 

 lowing result: — 'I made a point of inquiring of different 

 individuals as to the reality of the account, and am happy 

 in being able to say that it is now established as an impor- 

 tant fact in natural history by the testimony of two eye- 

 witnesses of unquestionable veracity, the clergyman of 

 Briamslaek, and Madame Benedictson of Stickesholm, both 

 of whom assured me that they had seen the expedition 

 performed repeatedly. Madame Benedictson, in parti- 

 cular, recollected having spent a whole afternoon, in her 

 younger days, at the margin of a small lake on which 

 these skilful navigators had embarked, and amusing herself 

 and her companions by driving them away from the sides 

 of the lake as they approached them. I was also informed 



' Jesse, Gleaning Sy iii., p. 176. 



' Introduction to Arctic Zoology, p. 70. 



