218 CONSCIOUSNESS IN 



that a boat whicli left the ship was lost. A few days afterwards, 

 however, when the gates of Gibraltar were opened in the morning* 

 the ass presented himself for admittance, and proceeded to the 

 stable of Mr. Weekes, a merchant, which he had formerly occupied, 

 to the no small surprise of this gentleman, who imagined that 

 from some accident the animal had never been shipped on board 

 the Ister. On the return of this vessel to repair, the mystery was 

 explained; and it turned out that Valiante (so the ass was called) 

 Lad not only swum safely to shore, but, without guide, compass, or 

 travelling map, had found his way from Point de Gal to Gibraltar, 

 a distance of more than two hundred miles, which he had never 

 traversed betbre, through a mountainous and intricate country, 

 intersected by streams, and in so short a period that he could not 

 have made one false turn. His not having been stopped on the 

 road was attributed to the circumstance of his having been for- 

 merly used to whip criminals upon, which was indicated to the 

 peasants, who have a superstitious horror of such asses, by the 

 holes in his ears, to which the persons flogged were tied." 



In consideration of the existence of facts of this kind, it 

 is contended that we cannot possibly account for them by 

 any conceivable extension of the senses of Smell and 

 Sight; and that we must suppose animals generally, 

 though unequally, to be endowed with a peculiar sense 

 whereby they are enabled to retain, in the midst of all 

 their wanderings, a constant perception or ' sense of direc- 

 tion ' of places from which they have been removed and 

 with which they have become intimately associated. 



Quite recently, too, an announcement lias been made by 

 M. E. Cyon,* which will doubtless, sooner or later, throw 

 much light upon the question of the Organ and Nerve Cen- 

 tres, having to do with this assumed ' sense of Direction * 

 which seems to exist, though very unequally, in Man and 

 BO many of the lower animals. 



M. Cyon's researches have led him to announce the 

 existence of a more or less independent Organ of Sense 



* " Comp. Kend.," 31st December, 1877. 



