ON INSTINCT IN MAN AND ANIMALS. 207 



lead to the vertical posture becoming gradually the 

 most agreeable one ; and there can be little doubt 

 that an infant would learn of itself to walk, even if 

 suckled by a wild beast. 



How Indians travel through unknown and trackless 

 Forests. 



Let us now consider the fact, of Indians finding their 

 way through forests they have never traversed before. 

 This is much misunderstood, for I believe it is only 

 performed under such special conditions, as at once to 

 show that instinct has nothing to do with it. A savage, 

 it is true, can find his way through his native forests 

 in a direction in which he has never traversed them 

 before ; but this is because from infancy he has been 

 used to wander in them, and to find his way by in- 

 dications which he has observed himself or learnt from 

 others. Savages make long journeys in many direc- 

 tions, and, their whole faculties being directed to the 

 subject, they gain a wide and accurate knowledge 

 of the topography, not only of their own district, 

 but of all the regions round about. Every one who 

 has travelled in a new direction communicates his 

 knowledge to those who have travelled less, and de- 

 scriptions of routes and localities, and minute incidents 

 of travel, form one of the main staples of conversation 

 round the evening fire. Every wanderer or captive 

 from another tribe adds to the store of information, 

 and as the very existence of individuals and of whole 

 families and tribes, depends upon the completeness of 



