202 FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 
another known feature catches his eye,and thus by ever 
narrowing stages he is guided home. Few persons have 
any idea of the distance one can see at great elevations. 
More than once I have stood on the Rocky Mountains, 
where, had I been a pigeon, I could have steered my flight 
by another mountain more than one hundred miles dis- 
tant. Balloonists say that at the height of half a mile 
the whole course of the Thames or the Seine, from end to 
end, is spread out as plain as a map beneath their eyes. 
There is no doubt that a pigeon may rise to where he can 
recognize, in clear weather,a landscape one hundred and 
fifty miles away; it has been done repeatedly, though only 
by the best birds, specially trained for that particular line 
of flight. There is no greater error than to suppose that 
carrier-pigeons sent a long distance from home in any di- 
rection will always return, as though attracted by a load- 
stone. The benevolent lady received only a good-natured 
laugh for her pains, when she offered to equip the late 
British Arctic expedition with these winged messengers, 
who, she supposed, could be despatched from any point 
with tidings, and have a fair chance of getting straight 
back to England. 
aN pigeon’s power of memory is really wonderful. Be- 
ginning with short stages, perhaps of not more than a 
