ENVIRONMENT, PAST AND PRESENT 75 



yet Others (e.g. adult golden plovers from the Barren 

 Lands) first fly due east to Labrador before starting 

 south. The yellow-billed loon actually appears to 

 north in the first place, then west (or east), then 

 south. But they all ultimately go south. 



Before we consider the birds, let us picture our- 

 selves paying a visit to the barren lands as gentlemen 

 of leisure and means, with the intention of staying 

 there twelve months. Towards the end of the sum- 

 mer we take stock of our supplies and find that we 

 have neither a sufificiency of food or fuel to see us 

 through the winter. Shortening days and early 

 frosts warn us that it is time to act. We fully com- 

 prehend their significance . Thanks to other people's 

 knowledge of the north we can foresee threatening 

 blizzards, extreme temperatures and eternal night. 

 We would mentally scan the continent (thanks to 

 book-knowledge) and probably decide that Cali- 

 fornia would be a good refuge. We would forth- 

 with radiograph for an airplane, fiy south under the 

 care of a navigator, surrounded by instruments and 

 gadgets from a compass to tooth-picks, and there- 

 after probably never cease to bore our friends with 

 tales of our prowess. We could do it all without any 

 previous personal experience. We could form a 

 mental picture of the entire environment from the 

 observations of others. Consciously and inten- 



