CHAPTER ahh 
INSTINCT VERSUS REASON. 
Judging from the wonderful strides science has 
taken during the past twenty-two years, its progress 
has greatly exceeded that of the prior seventy-six 
vears of this present century. We view with wonder 
akin to awe what once seemed to be insane and vague 
ideas, or delusions, now modeled, improved, used and 
adopted by all nations for profit, comfort and luxury; 
while electricity, machinery, art, music, drawing and 
the schools of painting, medicine; surgery, dentistry, 
photography, etc., seem to overshadow all. Yet, we 
must not lose sight of the perfection with which guns, 
ammunition, combustibles (especially wood and nitro 
compounds), decoys and other devices have kept pace 
with the foremost, and scattered broadcast their de- 
structive propensities. 
Why wonder that the countless flocks of ducks and 
geese, surrounded upon all sides by improved weap- 
ons, which belch forth death and destruction upon 
them, should have their ranks decimated, their flights 
changed, their old landmarks removed or destroyed, 
their feeding, roosting, nesting and play grounds 
devastated; and what remains of that vast and flutter- 
ing cloud of wings we may assume to be most truly 
the “survival of the fittest?” 
Is it not possible (aided by a peculiar and unknown 
quantity which lies in that wonderful and magic circle 
54 
