Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-09-16
Instinct in Horses.

Y
HoRsE.-About fortnight ago, says the Bristo
England Times, Mr.. King, carrying on tht
business of q baker at Sibland, near Thornbury
which his horse had been grazing for the pur
pose of getting him home, and, as he had beer
| 10 the habit of doing, opened the gate and al
| lowed the animal to proceed home by itself, but
on his return shortly after he found to his dis
may that it had not arrived. Mr. King immedi-
ately set about making inquiries, and found il
had passed Gravesend, which is near to Sibland,
and appeared to be proceeding towards Itchin-
ton. Mr.. King being necessitated to attend to
his business, dispatched man to trace and il
possible overtake the horse. The man succeed
ed in tracing it for some distance, and was in
formed it was proceeding at gallop. Mr.. King,
! for upwards of a week, used every means, by
advertising in the Hue and Cry and otherwise,
to recover his missing horse, but without avail.
few days since he received letter from a
gentleman residing at ST. George, near Bristol,
giving him the welcome news that the animal
was safe. This gentleman owned the horse for
some time, and parted with it four years since.
From inquiries made, it appears that the horse
proceeded by the most direct road across the
country, and with its best speed arrived at his
| old quarters, which it had not visited for four
years, in the afternoon of the day it strayed from
Mr. King.
Instances of like sagacity in the horse are not
uncommon. A friend of ours hired horse in
Jacksonville, QllinoisO to go to the Southern
part of the country, neighborhood where the
horse had never been before. Willie there he
escaped from The stable, leaped the fence, and
disappeared. 1t was supposed he had returned
to Jacksonville, where he had been stabbed and
used for three years. On inquiry, no trace was
found of him in that direction. A rumor was
brought by a traveller who knew the horse that
he had been seen making his way toward the
Southern part of the State; he sometimes kept
the public road leading towards Vandalia, and
sometimes took to the trackless prairie, but al
ways bent Southwark: AT one place he was
headed off in lane mile long, between two
farms. He turned short, galloped north to the
end of the farm, shot down to the open prairie,
hugging the fence all the way, and then held on
his way South again. He was bound Tor home,
the place of bis colt-hood, where he had not
been for several years, and guided by his in.
stinct he traversed the State, going route un-
known to him, but unerringly reaching his old
range. He was recovered there some time after
his escape, when it was ascertained that he had
taken almost O pee line from MS strange quarters
in Morgan county to the home where he was
foaled in the Southern part of the State
A gentleman from Tennessee related to US a
story of a horse of his own, illustrative of this
remarkable instinct in this noble animal He
purchased horse in portion of the State sep
arated from his own region by mountains and
rivers, and took him home by route extending
nearly hundred and fifty miles. He placed
him in a pasture lot for the night, but in the
morning the horse was gone. In few days it
was ascertained that he had returned that very
night to his old home, reaching there by day
light. He had taken straight course across
the country, swimming rivers and crossing the
mountains. On his arrival he showed signs of
great fatigue, having travelled distance of six
ty or seventy miles during the night, following
unerringly the point of the compass to which he
desired to 60. His memory would of course
have served him in retracing the route by which
he had come But, guided by the same instinct
which conducts the bee, after long wandering
and laden with his sweet burden, in line math-
ematicaly straight from the last flower he ra-
wishes to his cell, this horse in the darkness of
the night, over unknown paths, returned by the
shortest course to his home.-,St. Louis Rep.