68 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



a greater scale when one considers their size and 

 the restrictions due to lack of implements, acts 

 only by instinct. It is indeed difficult to under- 

 stand the discrepancy. We might say with some 

 reason that the cutting down of trees is the result 

 of instinct, just as an elephant reaches a branch 

 with his trunk and pulls it down so that he may 

 enjoy eating the leaves which would otherwise be 

 out of reach, or a rat eats his way through an oat 

 bin in order to get at the contents. The results in 

 such cases are obvious, they require no great 

 thought or abstract reasoning, they are the result 

 of an immediate desire for, or need of, food, the 

 search for which is a primal instinct born in all 

 forms of animal life, and manifesting itself long 

 before there can be the slightest development of 

 reason. The young of many birds are blind when 

 first hatched, yet they know enough by inherited 

 instinct to hold up their heads and open their 

 mouths when food is brought. So also the sight- 

 less young of many animals have practically but 

 one way of expressing consciousness, which is to 

 suckle. So the actual obtaining of food in an 

 obvious way is easily accounted for by instinct; 

 but when animals plan against emergencies which 

 are bound to come some months ahead, or against 

 contingencies which may possibly come, they are 

 reasoning to a greater or lesser degree according to 

 the methods employed for making the necessary 

 provisions. 



