204 FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 
spiral, and after circling about a moment, shoot homeward 
“in a bee-line.” Evidently he has “got his bearings.” Had 
you watched him the first time he ever left his hive you | 
would have observed precisely similar conduct to acquaint 
himself with the surroundings. 
How a bird like the albatross, the man-of-war-hawk, or 
the petrel, swinging on tireless pinions in apparently aim- 
less flight over the tossing and objectless ocean, suddenly 
rouses its reserve of strength to traverse in a day or two 
the hundreds of miles between it and the rocky shores 
where it builds its nest; or how it finds the lone islet 
which these winged wanderers of the sea alone render pop- 
ulous, is not easily explained. Nor can we readily under- 
stand how once a year the salmon comes back (from con- 
jecture only guesses where), not to the coast alone, for 
that would be no more than an ordinary case of migra- 
tion, but to the identical stream where it was born; and 
to prove that it was not a blind emotion that led it, would 
be harder than in the case of the pigeon, the bee, or even 
the frigate-bird. Yet who knows that the fishes may not 
be able to perceive the differences in the water which we 
designate “ variations of temperature and density,” or still 
more delicate properties, and thus distinguish the fluid of 
their native place from the outside element? It is a ques- 
