Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1883 — THE SIXTH SENSE. [ARTICLE]

THE SIXTH SENSE.

Curiosities of Animal Instinct. Among the higher animala the faculty of direction is by no means an universal gift; sheep, cats and monkeys lose their way as easily as babes in the "woods; chickens can be transferred to a neighboring farm without fear of their returning to their native roost. What special faculty can constitute Jthe superiority of a dog over a cat, or of a car-rier-pigeon over a gallinaceous fowl? The idea that a home-bound dog travels by memory is not always tenable. Like a bird, he will often choose a bee-line, and distance seems to make but little difference. In the test-experiment of a Kentucky sporting-club, a pointer, set. 3, was drugged and taken out on a night train of the Cincinnati Southern railroad, not only a full hundred miles beyond the range of his former rambles, but by a route (after leaving the depot) that must have impressed him with the idea that his captors had abducted him in a northerly direction. In a stubblefield, surrounded by woods, and out of sight of any landmarks he could possibly have recognized, he gave the experimenters the slip, but four days after he was, nevertheless, home. If he ranged the country at random, the probabilities were a million to one that his search would have outlasted the wanderings of Ulysses. Steering by memory was in this case out of the question. Was he guided by a “sixth sense?” Or by the sense of smell ? The distance, in an air-line, was about 150 miles. How many intervening objects—Lexington breweries, swamps, woodlands, thousands of blue-grass farms and eattlepens —must have disguised the scent of an atmosphere he could have recognized. And, beside, is there a doubt that lie would have finished his trip as quickly if his objective point had been a cottage in a solitary nook of the Alleghanies, instead of a reeking factory-town ? Nightingales, in their South-Spanish winter-quarters, can certainly not smell the hawthorn hedge of their North-Brit-ish summer home. Yet they return, and, probably, like cranes, by the shortest route. Anatomists know that in birds the organ of smell is very imperfectly developed; their nostrils are merely breathing-apertures,and watching them , at their meals leaves no doubt that they are guided by sight in picking every morsel of food. Hens cannot detect food in a hiding-place; they cannot smell concealed earth-worms, but have to scratch at random and use their eyes. In exactly the same way tame vultures clean up the meat-market of Yera Cruz. They hop about and peer left and right for scraps and offal: their eyes are everywhere; their sense of smell does not help them to detect a single morsel hidden in the dust, for instance, or under the bottom of a light basket that would not intercept the scent. How do they find a carcass ? A hound, hunting by scent, keeps his nose down, and would not promote his purpose by climbing a mountain and sniffing the air from the summit. A vulture rises above the clouds. If he had to hunt on the canine plan, lie would skim along the ground. High in the summit-regions of Mount Antisana, Bonpland saw a condor at an immense elevation above him; and even the Texas zopilote, a near relative of our turkey-buzzard, ascends to a height of four English miles, and, as it would seem, far above the tinted atmosphere of the lower world. Yet, even on days when there is no zopilote in sight, half an hour after a mule has dropped on the loneliest bridle-path of the Mexican Cordilleras, a pack of aerial hounds are sure to put in an appearance. It matters not if the accident has happened on an open table-land or in a deep mountain-glen, or even in the woods. Watching the sky from an open cliff, a speck may be discerned here and there on the distant horizon, slowly hut steadily approaching, as if drawn by an invisible cord—intuitively,in default of a better wor37 But Whether that intuition operates by a gaseous or optical medium, remains an unanswered question. One point might, perhaps, be decided by manufacturing au absolutely odorless sham-carcass, and trying whether the mere sight of the counterfeit banquet would attract the guests. —Lijjpincott's Magazine;