ON INSTINCT IN MAN AND ANIMALS. 207 
lead to the vertical posture becoming gradually the 
most agreeable one; and there can be little doubt 
that an infant would learn of itself to walk, even if 
suckled by a wild beast. 
\ 
How Indians travel through unknown and trackless 
Forests. 
Let us now consider the fact, of Indians finding their 
way through forests they have never traversed before. 
This is much misunderstood, for I believe it is only 
performed under such special conditions, as at once to 
show that instinct has nothing to do with it. A savage, 
it is true, can find his way through his native forests 
in a direction in which he has never traversed them 
before; but this is because from infancy he has been 
used to wander in them, and to find his way by in- 
dications which he has observed himself or learnt from 
others. Savages make long journeys in many direc- 
tions, and, their whole faculties being directed to the 
subject, they gain a wide and accurate knowledge 
of the topography, not only of their own district, 
but of all the regions round about. Every one who 
has travelled in a new direction communicates his 
knowledge to those who have travelled less, and de- 
scriptions of routes and localities, and minute incidents 
of travel, form one of the main staples of conversation 
round the evening fire. Every wanderer or captive 
from another tribe adds to the store of information, 
and as the very existence of individuals and of whole 
families and tribes, depends upon the completeness of 
