Although there are few who would dispute the cleverness and sagacity of the larger animals, it is doubtful if there are many who credit the mouse with even average intelligence. The following instance may go far to raise our humble friend in the popular estimation; more especially as it has been vouched for by eye-witnesses. In countries where berries are but thinly dispersed, these little animals are obliged to cross rivers to make their distant forages. In returning with their booty to their magazines, they are obliged to recross the stream; in doing which they show an ingenuity little short of marvellous. The party, which consists of from six to ten, select a water-lily leaf, or some other floating substance, on which they place the berries on a heap in the middle; then, by their united force, bring it to the water’s edge, and after launching it, embark and place themselves round the heap, with their heads joined over it, and their backs to the water. In this manner they drift down the stream, until they reach the opposite shore, when they unload their cargo, which they store away for the proverbial rainy day.