WATSON'S CROSSING. 73 



gone. I could not but laugh immoderately at the pre- 

 cipitancy of its retreat after nipping my thumb. The 

 snake was really an arrant coward. But to return to the 

 question : if the snake was not thinking, and as prede- 

 termined to bite as I was to touch, what was the creat- 

 ure's brain doing during those anxious moments ? Can 

 we imagine any other than a mental activity such as is 

 known to be possessed by man ? What intelligence or 

 mind may be, I have not the most remote conception, 

 beyond its intimate connection with the brain ; but after 

 a lifetime spent in studying our familiar wild animals, I 

 have utterly failed to find other mental differences be- 

 tween them and mankind than those of degree. 



It has been suggested that enthusiasm on the part 

 of the observer may "saturate its object . . . with 

 thoughts, ideas, and emotions foreign to its intrinsic 

 nature." Is not this an admission that " thoughts, ideas, 

 and emotions," not foreign, may be generated by a 

 snake's brain? If so, I have erred only in misinter- 

 preting, quite insignificantly, their mental powers. 



When this same snake is speeding through the water, 

 or creeping cautiously through the meadow - grass, in 

 pursuit of prey, it knows that speed is necessary to capt- 

 ure a fish, and caution required to secure a mouse ; and 

 during the act, what thought but that a given plan, 

 learned by experience, must be followed out ? How 

 does man differ from all this? Does not the hunter, 

 in pursuit of game, follow much the same rules, and, so 

 far as his proper business is concerned, think practically 

 the same thoughts ? 



To return to the irate serpent of the raft : it had no 

 4 



