LOGIC OF RECEFTS. 5 1 



reasons already given, I will answer this question by fastening 

 attention exclusively on the mind of brutes. 



To lead off with a few instances which have been already 

 selected for substantially the same purpose by Mr. Darwin : — 



" Houzeau relates that, while crossing a wide and arid 

 plain in Texas, his two dogs suffered greatly from thirst, and 

 that between thirty and forty times they rushed down the 

 hollows to search for water. These hollows were not valleys, 

 and there were no trees in them, or any other difference in the 

 vegetation ; and as they were absolutely dry, there could have 

 been no smell of damp earth. The dogs behaved as if they 

 knew that a dip in the ground offered them the best chance of 

 finding water, and Houzeau has often witnessed the same be- 

 haviour in other animals." * 



I have myself frequently observed this association of ideas 

 between hollow ground and probability of finding water in the 

 case of setter-dogs, which require much water while working ; 

 and it is evident that the ideas associated are of a character 

 highly generic. 



Further, Mr. Darwin writes : — " I have seen, as I dare say 

 have others, that when a small object is thrown on the ground 

 beyond the reach of one of the elephants in the Zoological 

 Gardens, he blows through his trunk on the ground beyond 

 the object, so that the current reflected on all sides may drive 

 the object within his reach. Again, a well-known ethnologist. 

 Mr. Westropp, informs me that he observed in Vienna a bear 

 deliberately making with his paw a current in some water, 

 which was clor.e to the bars of his cage, so as to draw a piece 

 of floating bread within his reach." * 



In Animal Intelligence it will be seen that both these 

 observations are independently confirmed by letters which I 

 have received from correspondents ; so that the facts must be 

 accepted. And they imply a faculty of forming generic ideas 

 of a high order of complexity. Indeed, these are not unlike 

 the generic ideas of intelligent water-dogs with reference to 



• Descent of Man, ji. 76. 



