258 GEOEGE JOHN ROMANES isss- 



arm in picking up the straws and placing them in her 

 mouth. Without being able to decide positively in 

 which of these ways she estimates the number, I am 

 inclined to think it is in the latter. But, if so, it is 

 surprising, as already remarked, over how long a time 

 this estimate by muscular sense endures. Should 

 we trust Houzeau's statement, however (and he is 

 generally trustworthy), it appears that computation 

 by muscular sense may extend in some animals over 

 a very long period. For he says that mules used in 

 the tramways at New Orleans have to make five 

 journeys from one end of the route to the other before 

 they are released, and that they make four of these 

 journeys without showing any expectation of being 

 released, but begin to bray towards the end of the 

 fifth. 1 



From this letter it will, I hope, be apparent that 

 so far as ' counting ' by merely sensuous computation 

 is concerned, the savage cannot be said to show much 

 advance upon the brute. ' Once, while I watched a 

 Damara floundering hopelessly in a calculation on one 

 side of me, I observed Dinah, my spaniel, equally em- 

 barrassed on the other. She was overlooking half a 

 dozen of her new-born puppies, which had been re- 

 moved two or three times from her, and her anxiety 

 was expressive as she tried to find out if they were 

 all present, or if any were still missing. She kept 

 puzzling and running her eyes over them, backwards 

 and forwards, but could not satisfy herself. She evi- 

 dently had a vague notion of counting, but the figure 

 was too large for her brain. Taking the two as they 



1 Fac. Mcnt. des Anim. torn. ii. p. 207. 



