The Zoologist— May, 1873. 3523 



unravelling of this yet unsolved problem is simply to accumulate facts." 

 The extremely crude guesses which have been so liberally and so un- 

 advisedly published, cei'tainly tend rather to retard than promote a solution. 

 Take the sense of smell, for instance, how can the sense of smell aid a dog 

 crossing a river or an arm of the sea ? or a salmon in the ocean ? or a swallow 

 in the air? and yet thei'e are constantly recurring instances of the return of 

 marked salmon or marked swallows to the spots where they first saw the 

 light. The excessive crudity, or as a would-be wit has expressed it, "the 

 intense verdure of some natural-history guesses " is most refreshing. The 

 President of a scientific society lately narrated how that a salt-water lake 

 in Norway had lately become fresh ; an incredulous wag gravely asked the 

 learned narrator what became of the salt ? " Oh ! ah ! well ! yes ! I never 

 thought of that — of course it evaporated." The audience appeared perfectly 

 satisfied with this guess, as they were with another philosopher when he 

 guessed that the phenomena of perception were due to the olfactory organs ; 

 in a word, that the lower animals in their migrations and movements were 

 led by the nose. All this guessing is part of the old, old error of trying to 

 lead rather than to follow Nature : would that the self-elected teachers could 

 reflect a moment before they guess. One passage quoted from Sir Bartle 

 Frere's paper on " Cutch," implies the exercise of this rare gift, and is more 

 suggestive than anything I have read on the subject. He says, " As else- 

 where in the plain country of Siud, and here more conspicuously owing to 

 the absence of any prominent natural features or marked tracts, the best 

 guides seem to depend on a kind of instinct ; they will generally indicate 

 the exact bearing of a distant point which is not in sight quite as accurately 

 as a common compass would give it to one who knew the true bearing. 

 They affect no mysterious knowledge, and are generally quite unable to give 

 any reason for their conclusion, which seems the result of an instinct like 

 that of dogs, horses and other animals — unerring, but not founded on any 

 process of reasoning which others can trace or follow." Although giving the 

 name of "instinct" to the phenomenon in question is something like using 

 a synonym, and therefore leaving the subject where he found it, yet we must 

 all of us acknowledge that the word " instinct" conveys an idea of something 

 we have ourselves experienced. I sincerely hope this discussion will be 

 followed up with the vigour shown in its commencement, the contributors 

 bearing steadily in mind the Editor's invaluable injunction, " to accumulate 

 facts," and I would add, abstain from guessing. — Edward Neioman. 



Perception in the Lower Animals. — Reading the paragraph from ' Nature,' 

 under the above heading' (S. S. 3488), reminds me of an incident, some- 

 thing akin to what is there described, which once came under my 

 notice. Some years ago, having occasion to see a person who lets horses, 

 I went to his stable, and there found him in great surprise about the 

 behaviour of both his horses, which were snorting and kicking in a furious 



