The Superiority of the Female 

 in Natural History. 



ABUNDANT instances are given us in the annals 

 of natural history of this superiority, and the close 

 study of this subject reveals the undoubted fact 

 that the feminine mind controls the action of the paired 

 ones, whether in beast, bird, or fish. The arrogation of 

 this superiority is also acknowledged by the old writers, 

 both in this and continental countries. 



Everyone is familiar with the architectural instincts of 

 the elephant, without which irrigation work could scarcely 

 be carried out in hot countries, where the natural beast 

 of burden with us, viz., the horse, cannot be employed. 

 As for road-making and the laying of pipes for drainage 

 he is indispensable, and he is known to exercise a deal of 

 prudence, more so than any other beast of burden. He 

 not only is capable of undertaking tremendous tasks, but 

 he has the natural instinctive quality largely developed of 

 finding out the shortest possible routes to the required 

 rendezvous, choosing the easiest slopes, and thereby 

 gaining his goal with a minimum of exertion, so unlike 

 other animals. 



When travelling in herds the female invariably leads, 

 proving that sagacity is more conspicuous in the gentler 

 sex of this gigantic animal. 



Take another animal, the gnu. The cows will them- 

 selves expel an obnoxious bull from their society without 

 more ado ; and so it is obvious that, even among the 

 quadrupeds, the male, for all his superior pluck and much 

 talked of courage, does not have things all his own way. 



120 



