not the requisite knowledge among natives in India ; the work | 
must be done in this safer climate, and the specimens can be 
better preserved here than in the museums of the hot plains, 
or those which may be formed in the damp regions of the 
hills. HYDE CLARKE 
St. George’s Square, S. W. 
Instinct 
Moving in a Cirele 
In your last week’s number a letter appeared with the initials 
N. Y., in which it was stated that itis believed in North Ame- 
rica that a lost man always strays in a circle towards the left. I 
may mention that whilst walking in a woody and hilly part of 
the New Forest, I found, to my great astonishment, that I had 
described a complete circle, and it was towards the left. My 
father also tells me that he has been informed (although under 
what circumstances he does not recollect) that the same idea 
obtains in Australia. It has been suggested that the reason of 
this fact (if fact it is) is, that the right side of the body is stronger 
than the left ; in confirmation of the truth of this explanation, it 
is worthy of notice that Dr. Wm. Ogle (in a paper on Dextral 
Pre-eminence, Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. liv.) finds 
that men are right-legged as well as right-handed, although the 
rule has not so universal an application. One of the points 
adduced by him in evidence is that bootmakers generally find the 
right foot larger than the left. 
If any of your readers who have strayed ina similar manner, 
would take the trouble to write to you merely stating whether 
they wandered to the right or the left, it is possible that a suffi- 
cient body of facts might be collected either to confirm or dis- 
prove this curious belief. GEORGE DARWIN 
Down, Beckenham, April 29 
Perception in Dogs 
PERHAPS you will think that the following story of a Mentone 
dog, Pietrino, is worth adding to the similar stories which have 
appeared in your columns :— 
The Archduchess Marie Régnier passed the winter of 1871-2 
at the Hotel Victoria in Mentone. While there she became 
much attached to a spaniel belonging to M. Milandri, the land- 
lord, and on her return to Vienna in the spring she took the 
dog there. Not long after, the dog reappeared at the hotel in 
Mentone, having returned on foot a distance of nearly one 
thousand miles over a country totally unknown, excepting 
having once traversed it by rail. The fatigue caused the poor 
fellow to die a few days afterwards, and Pietrino is honoured 
with a grave and a monument in the hotel gardens. 
I send you a French paper containing the same facts. 
JAmEs B, ANDREWS 
Villa d’Adhemar, Mentone, April 17 
Peruaps the following anecdote on the instinct of dogs, 
which has lately come to my knowledge, may prove of interest 
to some’of your readers. 
A family residing in Yorkshire possessed two dogs, one a 
mastiff, and the other a small dog. The owner, visiting Hastings, 
took the little dog with him, and at the house where he stayed 
there was a larger animal, who, disregarding the laws of hospi- 
tality, woefully maltreated his youthful visitor. The little dog, 
upon this, disappeared, and in a few days returned, bringing 
with him the mastiff from Yorkshire, which set upon the Iastings 
dog and thrashed him to within an inch of his life. Having 
performed this piece of retributive justice he returned to his 
home in the north, while the little dog stayed to rejoice over his 
fallen antagonist. A. Percy SmMitH 
Rugby, April 18 
Prehistoric Art 
Mr. SEARLE V. Woon’s inquiry [((NATURE, vol. vii. p. 443) 
whether any existing race of savages is capable of depicting 
animals with the spirit and fidelity of the supposed con- 
temporary representations of the mammoth is a most per- 
tinent one, but must be answered in the affirmative. 
In the Atlas to Gustav Fritsch’s great work on the 
Aborigines of South Africa, just published at Berlin, will be 
found reproductions of delineations of animals, executed in 
caves by the Bushmen, which are certainly equal to the carvings 
‘and tracings of the prehistoric period. The originals are usually 
painted, but sometimes carved or scratched in sandstone or some 
other soft material. Five different colours are employed ; the 
NATURE 
objects represented are usually the animals indigenous to the 
country, but the human figure is occasionally introduced, and 
since the arrival of the European colonists, horses and even 
ships have been added. It is most remarkable to find the Bush- 
men in this respect so far in advance of the comparatively 
civilised negro, who has never of his own impulse produced 
anything approaching to the merit of these designs. Perhaps 
some of your contributors will be able to state whether any cor- 
responding difference exists in the cerebral organisation of the 
respective races. R. G, 
London, April 19 
April Meteors 
IN continuation of my report sent you yesterday in reference 
to the April meteors of this year, I desire to add the following. 
The evening of April 21 being clear, a watch was sustained 
from 94 to 12, during which time 14 shooting-stars were seen. 
These, with the 20 observed on the two previous evenings, make 
the total number seen 34 in 74 hours of observation, The de- 
tails of the meteors noticed on April 21 are as under :— 
Ref. Date. Time. Beginning. Ending. 
No. RAS ae RA. DS 
21 .«. Apriler.. 98 xr} mag. 266° 549+ 2369 3294 
Sak tae ¢ +» 9,20 2nd mag. > 299 383+- 309 38 + 
23 on » 9.29 3rd mag. 310 59+ 319 58 + 
24 ave » g-4t 3rd mag. * 289 or -F 270 68 + 
SB Nu 4A 9.57 2nd mag. * 263 50+ 238 47 + 
26 .. A 10.22 grd mag. * 273 51+ 273 61 + 
27 ns > «» 10.30 4th mag. * 325 68 + 328 60 + 
aera 2 «+ 10.32 4th mag. * 2643 61 + 255 55 + 
Tey 6 10.50 4th mag. * 319 693+ 339 66 + 
BO vas 3). ans.” LXV 295 45 + 309 49 + 
Bi, kes ii «- 1116 3rd mag. 278 49 + 270 593+ 
AA wiash ¥ 11.32 4th mag. * 27 14+ 283 12+ 
cc on > 11.40 3rd mag. * 28 59 + 270 47 + 
34 + ” 11.45 4th mag. * 334 47 + 34 qt + 
Nos. 22, 25, 26, 30, and 31 were from the radiant near a Lyrae. 
On April 
Lyraids, but on April 21 they were ina minority. Nos. 21, 23, 
24, 33, and 34 were conformable to a radiant at o Draconis, 
R.A. 283°, D. 59°+, and it is worthy of note that on the two 
preceding nights there were no indications of this radiant point, 
To sum up my recent observations, it would seem that from the 
various meteoric tracks noted, the April shooting-stars of this 
year had three well-marked centres of radiation, viz., (1) near 
a Lyrz, (2) near Arcturus, and (3) at o Draconis (R.A. 283°, 
D. 59+). There were also evidences of at least two other 
radiant points that, owing to the paucity of meteors, could only 
be approximately ascertained, viz., (1) near (Draconis, and (2) 
near a Cygni. ‘The brightest meteor seen on April 21 was a 
Lyraid ; time, 11" 7". Its path was accurately fixed. The 
meteor first appeared at 1° N. of 5 Cygni, and travelling to N, 
disappeared in a small triangle of stars 5° N. ofa Cygni. Several 
of the meteors emitted sparks in traversing their courses, but the 
majority were small objects of very brief duration. 
The foregoing particulars (taken in conjunction with my pre- 
vious letter) may be useful in determinating the radiant point of 
the April meteors, especially with regard to those diverging 
from Lyra, which, I believe, are considered identical with 
Comet I. 1861. I fixed this point at R.A. 274°, D. 37+, which 
is nearly of accord with the result of Karlinski (1867), R.A. 
278°2 D. 34°°5+, and of Prof. A. Herschel (1864), R.A. 
277°'5, D. 34° +. » 
Bristol, April 22 WILLIAM F,. DENNING 
A proposed new Barometer 
In the number of the Philosophical Magazine for May 1871 is 
an article by Prof. Heller, of Ofen, rendered (carelessly enough) 
from Poggendorff’s Annalen, describing a balance fitted with 
nearly equal weights of very different volumes, which he pro- 
poses as a barometer. He says that the principle on which it is 
founded ‘‘has not hitherto been used in barometric measure- 
ments.” This is not quite correct ; a balance, absolutely iden- 
tical in principle, is described by Boyle in vol. i. p. 231, of the 
Philosophical Transactions, under the title of ‘‘ A new Statical 
Baroscope.” It would seem that the practical difficulty of keep. 
ing it in accurate adjustment has been and still will be a bar to 
its use in the way the two inventors have proposed ; otherwise, 
it might perhaps be advantageously employed in mountain sur- — 
veys ; it would, at any rate, be free from many of the objections 
to the aneroid. 
Considered, however, as an exact barometer, I would main- 
19 and 20 the largest proportion of meteors were - 
i 
“ <* 
Sree: 
i ho) ee it 
a 
