Chap. III. Mental Powers. 8 1 



exercise of all its faculties in avoiding extirpation by man, as 

 well as to nearly all the less cunning or weak-minded rats having 

 been continuously destroyed by him. It is, however, possible 

 that the success of the common rat may be due to its having 

 possessed greater cunning than its fellow-species, before it 

 became associated with man. To maintain, independently of any 

 direct evidence, that no animal during the course of ages has 

 progressed in intellect or other mental faculties, is to beg the 

 question of the evolution of species. We have seen that, ac- 

 cording to Lartet, existing mammals belonging to several orders 

 have larger brains than their ancient tertiary prototypes. 



It has often been said that no animal uses any tool; but 

 the chimpanzee m a state of nature cracks a native fruit, some- 

 what like a walnut, with a stone.*" Eengger ^* easily taught an 

 American monkey thus to break open hard palm-nuts ; and 

 afterwards of its own accord, it used stones to open other kinds 

 oi: nuts, as well as boxes. It thus also removed the soft rind of 

 fruit that had a disagreeable flavour. Another monkey was 

 taught to open the lid of a large box with a stick, and after- 

 wards it used the stick as a lever to move heavy bodies ; and I 

 have myself seen a young orang put a stick into a crevice, slip 

 his hand to the other end, and use it in the proper manner as a 

 lever. The tamed elephants in India are well known to break 

 off branches of trees and use them to drive away the flies ; and 

 this same act has been observed in an elephant in a state ot 

 nature."* I have seen a young orang, when she thought she was 

 going to be whipped, cover and protect herself with a blanket or 

 straw. In these several cases stones and sticks were employed 

 as implements ; but they are likewise used as weapons. Brehm*" 

 states, on the authority of the well-known traveller Schimper, 

 that in Abyssinia when the baboons belonging to one species 

 ( G. gelada) descend in troops from the mountains to plunder the 

 fields, they sometimes encounter troops of another speciesl 

 (C hamadryas), and then a fight ensues. The Geladas roll' 

 down great stones, which the Hamadryas try to avoid, and then 

 both species, making a great uproar, rush furiously against each 

 other. Brehm, when, accompanying the Duke of Coburg-Gotha, 

 aided in an attack with fire-arms on a troop of baboons in the 

 pass of Itfensa in Abyssinia. The baboons in return rolled so 

 many stones down the mountain, some as large as a man's head, 

 that the attackers had to beat a hasty retreat ; and the pass was 



" Savage and Wyman in ' Boston 1830, s. 51-56. 



Journal of .Nat. Hist.' vol. iv. 184S- ^= The ' Indian Field,' March 4 



44, p. 383. 1871. 



'' 'Saii£;ethlere von Paraguay,' " ' Tliierleben,' B. i." a. 79, 82. 



7 



