Bramble-bees and Others 



Now that the facts are set forth, let us, if 

 possible, trace the cause. In a horizontal 

 tube, gravity no longer acts to determine the 

 direction which the insect will take. Is It to 

 attack the partition on the right or that on the 

 left ? How shall it decide ? The more I look 

 into the matter, the more do my suspicions 

 fall upon the atmospheric Influence which Is 

 felt through the two open ends. Of what 

 does this Influence consist? Is it an effect of 

 pressure, of hygrometry, of electrical condi- 

 tions, of properties that escape our coarser 

 physical attunement? He were a bold man 

 who should undertake to decide. Are not we 

 ourselves, when the weather is about to 

 alter, subject to subtle impressions, to sensa- 

 tions which we are unable to explain? And 

 yet this vague sensitiveness to atmospheric 

 changes would not be of much help to us in 

 circumstances similar to those of my anchor- 

 ites. Imagine ourselves in the darkness and 

 the silence of a prison-cell, preceded and fol- 

 lowed by other similar cells. We possess im- 

 plements wherewith to pierce the walls; but 

 where are we to strike to reach the final outlet 

 and to reach It with the least delay? Atmos- 



49 



