260 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [x. 



&quot;Savages make long journeys in many directions, and, their whole 

 faculties being directed to the subject, they gain a wide and accurate 

 knowledge of the topography, not only of their own district, but of all 

 the regions round about. Everyone who has travelled in a new 

 direction communicates his knowledge to those who have travelled 

 less, and descriptions of routes and localities, and minute incidents of 

 travel, form one of the main staples of conversation around the evening 

 fire. Every wanderer or captive from another tribe adds to the store 

 of information, and, as the very existence of individuals and of whole 

 families and tribes depends upon the completeness of this knowledge, 

 all the acute perceptive faculties of the adult savage are directed to 

 acquiring and perfecting it. The good hunter or warrior thus comes 

 to know the bearing of every hill and mountain range, the directions 

 and junctions of all the streams, the situation of each tract charac 

 terized b} r peculiar vegetation, not only within the area he has himself 

 traversed, but perhaps for a hundred miles around it. His acute 

 observation enables him to detect the slightest undulations of the 

 surface, the various changes of subsoil and alterations in the character 

 of the vegetation that would be quite imperceptible to a stranger. 

 His eye is always open to the direction in which he is going ; the mossy 

 side of trees, the presence of certain plants under the shade of rocks, 

 the morning and evening flight of birds, are to him indications of 

 direction almost as sure as the sun in the heavens &quot; (pp. 207-8). 



I have seen enough of savages to be able to declare 

 that nothing can be more admirable than this description 

 of what a savage has to learn. But it is incomplete. 

 Add to all this the knowledge which a savage is obliged 

 to gain of the properties of plants, of the characters and 

 habits of animals, and of the minute indications by 

 which their course is discoverable : consider that even 

 an Australian can make excellent baskets and nets, and 

 neatly fitted and beautifully balanced spears ; that he 

 learns to use these so as to be able to transfix a quartern 

 loaf at sixty yards .; and that very often, as in the case 

 of the American Indians, the language of a savage 

 exhibits complexities which a well-trained European 

 finds it difficult to master : consider that every time a 

 savage tracks his game, he employs a minuteness of 

 observation, and an accuracy of inductive and deductive 



