350 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
it. On my first visit afterwards I found that the beast had 
gone up to the bait and smelled it, but had left it untouched. 
He had next pulled up the pine tree that blo3ked the path, and 
gone around the gun and cut the line which connected the bait 
with the trigger, just behind the muzzle. Then he had gone back 
and pulled the bait away, and carried it out on the lake, where he 
lay down and devoured it at his leisure. There 1 found my string. 
I could scarcely believe that all this had been done designedly, for 
it seemed that faculties fully on a par with human reason would 
be required for such an exploit if done intentionally. I there- 
fore rearranged things, tying the string where it had been 
bitten. But the result was exactly the same for three succes- 
sive occasions, as I could plainly see by the footprints ; and 
what is most singular of all, each time the brute was careful to 
cut the line a little back of where it had been tied before, as if 
actually reasoning with himself that even the knots might be 
some new device of mine, and therefore a source of hidden 
danger he would prudently avoid. I came to the conclusion 
that that carcajou ought to live, as he must be something at 
least human, if not worse. I gave it up, and abandoned the 
road for a period. 
* * m # * * 
With so much for the tricks and the manners of the beast 
behind our backs, roaming at will in his vast solitudes, what of 
his actions in the presence of man ? It is said that if one only 
stands still, even in full view of an approaching carcajou, he 
will come within fifty or sixty yards, provided he be to wind- 
ward, before he takes the alarm. Even then, if he be not 
warned by sense of smell, he seems in doubt, and will gaze 
earnestly several times before he finally concludes to take him- 
self off. On these and similar occasions he has a singular 
habit — one not shared, so far as I am aware, by any other beasf 
whatever. He sits on his haunches and shades his eyes with one of 
his fore-paws, just as a human being would do in scrutinising a 
dim or distant object. The carcajou, then, in addition to his 
other and varied accomplishments, is a perfect sceptic — to use 
this word in its original signification. A sceptic, with the 
Greeks, was simply one who would shade his eyes to see more 
clearly. 
Bears .— There is no doubt that the intelligence of 
these animals stands very high in the psychological scale, 
although the actual instances which I have met of the 
display of their intelligence are £ew e The tricks which 
