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Show Th Topographical Inntlnct. A deep thinking Scotch skipper, seeing 1 a whale plowing its solitary way steadily j south for hours, and not deviating a i point from his course, said: "A whale will often leave tlie pack and set out all I alone in search of warmer seas, as this i one seems to have done. What guides them? Ab! now you block me, lad; but not only whales, even seals seem positively posi-tively to carry acompass in their brains." Many animals and birds possess a sense i which enables them to find their way I unerringly over sea or land, whero there exists, 60 far as we can see, nothing to ! guide them. Dogs, eats, horses and birds have found their way back from great distances to their homes, although they have been conveyed from it in a way to deprive them of all assistance from the organs of sight. The carrier pigeon, for instance, is carried car-ried hundreds of miles from its loft. It has traveled that distance in a basket under the seat of a railroad car; but when it is thrown up, it circles about for a few minutes, and then decides unhesitatingly unhesi-tatingly on the exact line of flight which brings it to its loft, though it may never have been in the country before. The explanation which says the bird has "the homing instinct" is as lame as that which ascribes to the bird the power of seeing its loft a hundred miles oway; the Scotch skipper's is much better; the bird "carries a compass in its brains." A writer in Leisure Hour says that a collie pup, 7 months old, was brought from Luverary to Aberdeen by rail, and from Aberdeen to Banchory by another railroad. The puppy ran away from Banchory and found its way back in a few days to Inverary, across a wooded, tuny country, witn one river anu several streams to get over. Tho writer calls the sense by which animals are guided in finding their way the topographical instinct which is fc name, but not an explanation. Youth's I Companion. |