208 ON INSTINCT IN MAN AND ANIMALS. 



this knowledge, all the acute perceptive faculties of 

 the adult savage are devoted to acquiring and perfect- 

 ing it. The good hunter or warrior thus comes to 

 know the bearing of every hill and mountain range, 

 the directions and junctions of all the streams, the 

 situation of each tract characterized by peculiar 

 vegetation, not only within the area he has himself 

 traversed, but for perhaps a hundred miles around 

 it. His acute observation enables him to detect 

 the slightest undulations of the surface, the various 

 changes of subsoil and alterations in the character of 

 the vegetation, that would be quite imperceptible to 

 a stranger. His eye is always open to the direction 

 in which he is going ; the mossy side of trees, the 

 presence of certain plants under the shade of rocks, 

 the morning and evening flight of birds, are to him 

 indications of direction, almost as sure as the sun in 

 the heavens. Now, if such a savage is required to 

 find his way across this country in a direction in 

 which he has never been before, he is quite equal 

 to the task. By however circuitous a route he has 

 come to the point he is to start from, he has observed 

 all the bearings and distances so well, that he knows 

 pretty nearly where he is, the direction of his own 

 home and that of the place he is required to go to. 

 He starts towards it, and knows that by a certain time 

 he must cross an upland or a river, that the streams 

 should flow in a certain direction, and that he should 

 cross some of them at a certain distance from their 

 sources. The nature of the soil throughout the whole 



