392 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



obtained information from other dogs ? Could the odour of 

 persons and furniture linger two months in the streets ? " 



It is evident that at least twelve hours were occupied in 

 finding the new place, leaving time for a good deal of trial 

 and error. One suggestion now occurs to me. There was a 

 rather circuitous omnibus route leading from Long Acre to 

 very near the new house. The dog may have often seen its 

 master travelling in a *bus, and may even have gone with 

 some of the family. He may, therefore, have followed 

 the 'bus route, seeking all the way for indications, till at last 

 he crossed the recent track of his master or of some other 

 member of the family, and by scent followed it up to the 

 door. The following passage concludes my letter to Nature : — 



" I venture to hope that some persons having means and 

 leisure will experiment on this subject in the same careful and 

 thorough way that Mr. Spalding experimented with his fowls. 

 The animal's previous history must be known and recorded ; 

 a sufficient number of experiments, at various distances and 

 under different conditions, must be made ; and a person of 

 intelligence and activity must keep the animal in sight, and 

 note down its every action till it arrives home. If this is 

 done, I feel sure that a satisfactory theory will soon be arrived 

 at, and much of, if not all, the mystery that now attaches 

 to this class of facts be removed." This suggestion I have 

 made several times during the last thirty years, but I cannot 

 learn that any one has yet carried it out. It is strange that 

 while thousands of dogs' lives are sacrificed annually to 

 establish some minute point in physiology, no one can be 

 found to carry out a few pleasurable and interesting experi- 

 ments to ascertain in what manner and by the use of what 

 faculties lost animals habitually find their way home. 



An analogous problem to this is that of the migration of 

 birds, which also has been almost always imputed to some 

 special instinct or peculiar faculty other than that of the 

 ordinary senses. On this question I wrote to Nature as 

 follows (October 8, 1874) : "It appears to me probable that 

 here, as in so many other cases, * survival of the fittest ' will 

 be found to have had a powerful influence. Let us suppose 



