April, 1887.] history society of Wisconsin. 
113 
SENSE OF DIRECTION. 
The problem as presented by wasps suggests two questions. 
First, the question of fact, that is whether they possess any 
such power; and second, if they do possess it, is it some myste¬ 
rious additional sense not possessed by man, or rather, as seems 
more probable, is it the result of a process of dead-reckoning, 
half unconscious, whereby the various turns and objects in a 
long journey are remembered and utilized when a return to the 
starting point is deemed desirable? 
The life and habits of many animals, and more especially of 
insects, have such a remoteness from human affairs that they 
often seem to pass beyond the boundary of the natural, and if 
they do not enter the region of the supernatural they are cer¬ 
tainly mysterious and incomprehensible. Sir John Lubbock, in 
dealing with the sense of direction in ants, concluded, after a 
number of observations, that they were endowed with this sense 
in a high degree. 
Subsequently he discovered, quite accidentally, that the ants 
found their way by observing the direction in which the light 
was falling. As long as the source of light was stationary no 
matter how many times he turned them around upon a rotating 
table, when the rotations ceased they knew their, way to and 
from the nest as well as they did before the rotation , whereas 
when the source of light was shifted the insects at once became 
confused as to their bearings even though not rotated at all. . 
Our object in the following experiments was to deteimine 
whether wasps possess any mysterious sense which ena es t em 
to fly in a straight line to any point they wish to reach, ev ^n 
though they have never been over the line before. e t oug 
that the best way of deciding the point would be to^ carry a 
number of wasps to some remote and unfamiliar spot an ere o 
8etthem free, when, if they possessed such a sense, t ey w0 ^ 
probably start directly for home, unless, indeed, the} stoppe o 
gather a load before returning to the nest; if they ew ^ ® 
way in another direction than toward the nest and t en re urne 
