A WONDERFUL ANIMAL. 89 



The last is seen no doubt in its liighest development amongst 

 savages — it is said that the aboriginal inhabitants of the West 

 Indies, now nearly extinct, could foretell the advent of a hurricane 

 a week or more in advance, which the most delicate meteorological 

 instruments fail to do. One may point out here, as somewhat 

 remarkable, that although the principles of almost all man's great 

 mechanical inventions have been anticipated by the lower animals, 

 he does not seem to have copied directly from Nature in this 

 respect in any instance, but to have evolved his discoveries inde- 

 pendently. And although he docs not possess the power of scent 

 of the chamois, the hearing of the bat, the sight of a hawk, the 

 muscular strength of the tiger, or speed of the cheetah, in the 

 aggi'egate the sum total of his senses and faculties far exceeds 

 that of any, while in endurance and adaptability he is second 

 to none — this wonderful creature, whom Bremser has declared to 

 occupy a sad middle state between the animal and the angel. 



Take, for instance, his sense of sight. Very few creatures 

 can compare with us in acuteness or comprehensiveness of vision 

 — some few birds, perhaps, such as the hawk and the gull. The 

 compliment "lynx-eyed" is a very doubtful one, since neither 

 the lynx nor any other cat is gifted with sight equal to that of 

 man. In fact, the excellence of this faculty is quite extraordinary 

 in comparison with its condition in the rest of the animal world ; 

 snakes see nothing distinctly at a distance equivalent to twice 

 their own length, while even the possessors of multiple eyes — 

 insects and spiders — cannot boast a power of perception even 

 relatively as good. A spider with its eight eyes may be observed 

 to feel along the threads of its web in order to discover the 

 precise whereabouts of a captured fly. It is very doubtful 

 whether any animal but man sees the stars. 



And, speaking of seeing the stars, it is curious how little we 

 know what we do see. All our senses befool us to some extent, 

 but none so much as that of sight — seeing is not believing. How 

 big does the moon appear to us ? A thousand persons, of all 

 ages, were tested with this question, and invited to draw on a 

 black-board the image of the moon of the actual size which it 

 presented to the mind of each. The result was a series of circles 

 ranging in diameter from that of a sliilling to that of a soup- 

 plate ; so gi'eat was the diversity that it was impossible to arrive 

 at any trustwoi'thy average amongst them. In respect of the 

 moon, too, occurs the singular sense-deception that we see it 

 apparently larger on the horizon than when we view it directly 

 overhead. AVe know, of course, that it is the same body ; but 



VOL. VIII. PART V. 7 



