The Homing Instinct 1C7 



slightest undulations of the surface, the various changes 

 of subsoil and alterations in the character of the vegeta- 

 tion, that would be quite imperceptible to the stran 

 His eye is always open to the direction in which he is 

 going ; the mossy side of the 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 direc- 

 tion 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." 



Mr. Wallace then explains how he thinks the savage 

 proceeds on his journey, and further states : 



" 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 com- 

 panions cannot perceive by what he has directed his course. 

 To the Europeans whom he guides, he seems to have come 

 without trouble, without any special observation, and by 

 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 

 alone could 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 some- 

 what different vegetation and animal life ; and after 

 bringing him by a circuitous route to a given point, ask 

 him to return to his starting-point by a straight line of 

 fifty miles through the forest, and he will certainly decline 



