364 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
inclined plane whereby to reach the rim. A quantity of 
the rubbish had also been thrown into the pot, with the 
effect of raising the level of the honey that remained to 
near the rim of the pot ; but, of course, the latter fact may 
have been due to accident, and not to design . 1 This is a 
case in which mal-observation does not seem to have been 
likely. 
Powelsen, a writer on Iceland, has related an account 
of the intelligence displayed by the mice of that country, 
which has given rise to a difference of competent opinion, 
and which perhaps can hardly yet be said to have been 
definitely settled. What Powelsen said is that the mice 
collect in parties of from six to ten, select a flat piece of 
dried cow-dung, pile berries or other food upon it, then 
with united strength drag it to the edge of any stream 
they wish to cross, launch it, embark, and range them- 
selves round the central heap of provisions with their heads 
joined over it, and their tails hanging in the water, 
perhaps serving as rudders. Pennant afterwards gave 
credit to this account, observing that in a country where 
berries were scarce, the mice were compelled to cross 
streams for distant forages . 2 Dr. Hooker, however, in his 
6 Tour in Iceland , 5 concludes that the account is a pure 
fabrication. Dr. Henderson, therefore, determined on 
trying to arrive at the truth of the matter, with the fol- 
lowing result ‘ I made a point of inquiring of different 
individuals as to the reality of the account, and am happy 
in being able to say that it is now established as an impor- 
tant fact in natural history by the testimony of two eye- 
witnesses of unquestionable veracity, the clergyman of 
Briamslaek, and Madame Benedictson of Stickesholm, both 
of whom assured me that they had seen the expedition 
performed repeatedly. Madame Benedictson, in parti- 
cular, recollected having spent a whole afternoon, in her 
younger days, at the margin of a small lake on which 
these skilful navigators had embarked, and amusing herself 
and her companions by driving them away from the sides 
of the lake as they approached them. I was also informed 
1 Jesse, Gleanings, iii., p. 176. 
g Introduction to Arctic Zoology , p. 70. 
