184 STORM AND WINTER. 
upon land, exists no local observation, no landmark, no guide; the 
currents of the atmosphere alone, in sympathy with those of water— 
perhaps, also, some invisible magnetic currents—pilot this hardy 
voyager, 
How strange a science! Not only does the swallow in Europe 
know that the insect which fails him there awaits him elsewhere, and 
goes in quest of it, travelling upon the meridian; but in the same 
latitude, and under the same climates, the loriot of the United States 
understands that the cherry is ripe in France, and departs without 
hesitation to gather his harvest of our fruits. 
It would be wrong to believe that these migrations occur in their 
season, without any definite choice of days, and at indeterminate 
epochs. We ourselves have been able to observe, on the contrary, the 
exact and lucid decision which regulates them; not an hour too soon 
or too late. 
When living at Nantes, in October 1851, the season being still 
exceptionally fine, the insects numerous, and the feeding-ground of the 
swallows plentifully provided, it was our happy chance to catch sight 
of the sage republic, convoked in one immense and noisy assembly, 
deliberating on the roof of the church of St. Felix, which dominates 
over the Erdre, and looks across the Loire. Why was the meeting 
held on this particular day, at this hour more than at any other? 
We did not know; soon afterwards we were able to understand it. 
Bright was the morning sky, but the wind blew from La Vendée. 
My pines bewailed their fate, and from my afflicted cedar issued a 
low deep voice of mourning. The ground was strewn with fruit, 
