NATURAL SELECTION 



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. Now, if such a savage is required to find his way 

 across this country in a direction in which he has never been 

 before, he is quite equal to the task. By however circuitous 

 a route he has come to the point he is to start from, he has 

 observed all the bearings and distances so well, that he knows 

 pretty nearly where he is, the direction of his own home and 

 that of the place he is required to go to. He starts towards 

 it, and knows that by a certain time he must cross an upland 

 or a river, that the streams should flow in a certain direction, 

 and that he should cross some of them at a certain distance 

 from their sources. The nature of the soil throughout the 

 whole region is known to him, as well as all the great features 

 of the vegetation. As he approaches any tract of country he 

 has been in or near before, many minute indications guide 

 him, but he observes them so cautiously that his white 

 companions cannot perceive by what he has directed his course. 

 Every now and then he slightly changes his direction, but he 

 is never confused, never loses himself, for he always feels at 

 home ; till at last he arrives at a well-known country, and 

 directs his course so as to reach the exact spot desired. To 

 the Europeans whom he guides he seems to have come with- 

 out trouble, without any special observation, and in a nearly 

 straight unchanging course. They are astonished, and ask if 

 he has ever been the same route before, and when he answers 

 "No," conclude that some unerring instinct could alone 

 have guided him. But take this same man into another 

 country very similar to his own, but with other streams and 

 hills, another kind of soil, with a somewhat different vegeta- 

 tion and animal life ; and after bringing him by a circuitous 

 route to a given point, ask him to return to his starting-place, 

 by a straight line of fifty miles through the forest, and he will 

 certainly decline to attempt it, or, attempting it, will more or 

 less completely fail. His supposed instinct does not act out 

 of his own country. 



A savage, even in a new country, has, however, undoubted 

 advantages from his familiarity with forest life, his entire 



