102 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



and always refuses to become, a " climbing animal." 

 Natural repugnance to this form of enterprise seems 

 characteristic of savage men, and even of animals 

 which run no risks whatever. 



African natives who have only lived in one-storied 

 huts show the greatest dislike to going up stairs, and 

 have been known to creep up on hands and knees, 

 while large dogs when required to ascend stairs for the 

 first time often refuse to do so except under strong 

 persuasion and with evident reluctance. A half-bred 

 greyhound, now immortalised in a well-known statue 

 of Artemis, would refuse absolutely to descend the 

 stairs when she had once gone up, and had to be 

 carried down. 



In the case of the dog, this dislike to the very 

 modified form of climbing needed for ascending a 

 staircase can be accounted for on physical grounds. 

 A very slight fall, even a jump from a cart, will snap 

 a dog's foreleg below the shoulder, and it seems aware 

 of the danger. A fox has not the slightest disinclina- 

 tion to run these risks ; it climbs easily and leaps 

 down lightly, and though not equipped like a cat for 

 " swarming " a trunk, one was seen by Mr. Tom 

 Smith, when Master of the Craven hounds, sitting 

 at a height of 17 feet in a straight-stemmed beech- 

 tree with only small horizontal branches to aid the 

 climb. 



That this art was acquired by animals with far 

 greater difficulty and effort than that of swimming, is 

 evident by the limited number in the same class which 

 have managed to become expert climbers. All the 



