UNSOLVED PROBLEMS. 147 



obliterated by civilisation. Not always or necessarily, how- 

 ever ; for it has been shown that white settlers in new coun- 

 tries, who are called upon by the necessities of life to develope 

 and cultivate the same closeness of observation of natural 

 objects or phenomena, to acquire the same kind and amount 

 of experience, acquire also the same useful path-finding 

 faculty through forest or over prairie. 



Unerring accuracy in way-finding has been alleged on 

 behalf of the Mongols, as on that of the lower animals, while 

 the hunters of Kansas make use of a straight or lee line in 

 certain cases ; but there is no good ground for believing 

 that this so-called * instinct ' is less fallible than other forms 

 or faculties, whether of instinct or of reason. Equally in 

 man and other animals, such way-finding as we have been 

 considering is rare and exceptional, while way -losing is ex- 

 tremely common even in short distances and on ground 

 previously traversed. It is only exceptionally intelligent 

 animals and men, and under exceptional cii-cumstances, 

 that find their way over long stretches of previously untra- 

 versed land or sea. Nichols, who has had great experience 

 in the Australian bush, and has studied way-finding there 

 by the horse, referring to the remarkable rapidity with 

 which it frequently makes its way home, explains that this 

 faculty is exhibited only occasionally, by certain horses, 

 under certain circumstances. Success in way-finding is, 

 he thinks, in proportion to the animal's intelligence. He 

 ascribes it to the use of no mysterious or occult power or 

 knowledge. It is determined by attachment to home and 

 by some knowledge of locality, both involving memory of 

 places and persons and attention to landmarks. Home- 

 coming depends on distance from home, the duration of 

 absence, the discomforts of change of residence and of a new 

 home, the sense of strangeness therein. But the home- 

 longing may be overcome by kindness of treatment ; attach- 

 ment to a new home and master may gradually weaken and 

 dissipate the first home sickness, until the animal loses both 

 its desire for return to its old quarters and its memory of 

 the way. 



Nor must we leave out of view the singular and accurate 



