64 INTRODUCTION. 



If a man was travelling over an extensive plain, and 

 a heavy fall of snow was suddenly to obscure his sight 

 of the track, and other surrounding objects that might 

 otherwise serve as guides, he would soon become be- 

 wildered : all his senses would be useless to him ; and he 

 would be, at length, utterly at a loss how to proceed. If 

 he should deviate one moment from the straight line, he 

 would become immediately involved in inexplicable 

 embarrassment, and will be as likely to pursue a totally 

 opposite direction, as to follow that which would con- 

 duct him to his house. No such thing happens to 

 either a dog or a horse ; on the contrary, when all track 

 is lost, when no object appears but the falling mass, 

 turn either the one or the other round as many times as 

 you will, and endeavour even to bewilder him, yet, the 

 moment he is left at his liberty, with little or no he- 

 sitation he will turn his head towards home, and, if un- 

 molested, will arrive there in safety. It is evident that 

 neither the dog nor the horse, so situated, can see 

 through the falling snow ; it is equally impossible for 

 either to smell his way ; for if the distance is one, two, 

 or three hundred miles, the faculty is alike active and 

 certain. Neither can remembrance operate, for no sur- 

 rounding object can become evident to assist. — Camels, 

 who travel many hundred miles over sandy desarts, 

 never mistake their road. Pigeons, removed under the 

 closest covering, to a distance they have never before 

 travelled, when set at liberty, immediately return. Lith- 

 Gow assures us, that pigeons carry letters from Babylon 

 to Aleppo in thirty hours, which require thirty days to 

 be carried by a man. Bees, and other insects, readily 

 return to any given spot without hesitation. Indeed, 

 their whole life is spent in wandering, and without such 

 a faculty they could never find their homes. 



A centleman brought from Neivfoundland a dog of 



