214 CONSCIOUSNESS IN 



or the Horse, enabled to find its way home in a short space 

 of time, through a previously unknown tract of country, 

 and along a route never previously traversed in any way ? 

 How, again, is the migratory Bird able to steer its way 

 across the sea, and for thousands of miles back to the same 

 chimney, house-top, or bush, where in the previous spring 

 it had built its nest and reared its young ? We are com- 

 pelled to assume that a ' Sense of Direction ' exists in 

 many animals, which enables them wholly to transcend 

 the range of other senses. 



This endowment occurs in such a rudimentary state in 

 the majority of human beings, as to make the correspond- 

 ing highly developed faculty of some animals appear almost 

 in the light of a wholly new and mysterious sense endow- 

 ment. 



The degree to which the rudiments of such an endow- 

 ment exist amongst ourselves, varies much in different 

 individuals. Some dwellers in cities, otherwise highly 

 intelligent, are almost incapable of finding their way through 

 intersecting streets to a not very distant place, whose direc- 

 tion was known at the time of starting ; whilst others, 

 setting out with a correct notion of the relative position of 

 the place they wish to reach, are easily able to find it, 

 even though they may have to pass through a previously 

 unknown maze of turnings. This power of keeping a 

 ' known direction ' in mind, during many shiftings of direc- 

 tion, exists, however, in a much higher degree in some 

 savage or semi-savage races of men. Thus, according to 

 Darwin, Yon Wrangel has recorded the truly wonderful 

 manner in which the natives of Northern Siberia are able 

 to keep " a true course towards a particular spot, whilst 

 passing for a long distance through hummocky ice, with 

 incessant changes of direction, and with no guide in the 

 heavens, or on the frozen sea." North American Indians 



