Chap. II. 
MENTAL POWERS. 
47 
ing and notice which the travellers received that the ice 
was becoming thin and dangerous. Now, did the dogs 
act thus from the experience of each individual, or from 
the example of the older and wiser dogs, or from an 
inherited habit, that is from an instinct ? This instinct 
might possibly have arisen since the time, long ago, 
when dogs were first employed by the natives in draw- 
ing their sledges ; or the Arctic wolves, the parent-stock 
of the Esquimaux dog, may have acquired this instinct, 
impelling them not to attack their prey in a close pack 
when on thin ice. Questions of this kind are most 
difficult to answer. 
So many facts have been recorded in various works 
shewing that animals possess some degree of reason, 
that I will here give only two or three instances, authen- 
ticated by Eengger, and relating to American monkeys, 
which stand low in their order. He states that when 
he first gave eggs to his monkeys, they smashed them 
and thus lost much of their contents ; afterwards they 
gently hit one end against some hard body, and picked 
off the bits of shell with their fingers. After cutting 
themselves only once with any sharp tool, they would 
not touch it again, or would handle it with the greatest 
care. Lumps of sugar were often given them wrapped 
up in paper ; and Eengger sometimes put a live wasp 
in the paper, so that in hastily unfolding it they got 
stung ; after this had once happened, they always first 
held the packet to their ears to detect any movement 
within. Any one who is not convinced by such facts as 
these, and by what he may observe with his own dogs, 
that animals can reason, would not be convinced by 
anything that I could add. Nevertheless I will give 
one case with respect to dogs, as it rests on two distinct 
observers, and can hardly depend on the modification 
of any instinct. 
