The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1871-12-14
The Flight of II Bird,

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real limit OF the carrier pigeons power
Of flight has recently been subjected in ,
country TO a more striking apd
conclusive test than il has ever had In
France or Belgium. The Newark Ad-
vertiser gives an account of the arrival
Of two birds at Montclair, N. D., from
two points which we find by the map
to he no less distant respectfully than
southern Florida, and the farther part
OF the Gulf Of Mexico and, what Is
still more remarkable, the time in
which they accomplished this tremen'
dons fight was an average Of about
200 miles an hour.
These birds brought notes from Har'
ny c. Blocker, to his father, informing
him of the progress Of the vessel ana
that all W ere well. One OF the birds
fel. dead Immediately upon its arrival
at Montclair, but brought the note in
the unprecedented time Of 2O2 miles
an hour. The birds were named re-
specially, Tornado and Typhoon, APP
propriate names, indeed, but they fail
to characterize such amazing powers
of fight, The wildes, tornado oil the
West Indies is probably not much over
100 miles an hour; and the typl'oon
Of last summer in the China seas-one
Of the most awful vind-blasts that ever
blew-tbough il swept away everything
in its path, on sea and shore, could
scarcely have exceeded l25 miles an
hour. The most terrible gales of last
winter on Mount Washington, as meas
urtd by the thermometer, were not
above 100 miles an hour. These would
have swept away the solidest build
inos that could have been erected on
that storm swept height, without the
security of the heavy chains and cables
which in the case of the two structures
actually there, were passed over the
rool and anchored fast into the granite
rock of the mountain itself. 1t requires
the statement Of such facts as these to
enable one to realize, by comparison,
the amazing velocity Of these carrier
pigeons in their long.sustained and
almost Incredible flight; a speed, III
; one instance, of 1876, and in the other
OF 2O2 miles an hour. This is literally
= outstripping the wind, even when the
wind puts forth the most awful anC
majestic exhibition Of its power. !,
= trausccnds all visible standards Of com
parisou-unless we go back to thu
:, lightning itself, a comparison necessa
y rilv mad ,nissible in any other than {
, poetic sense. 1t is no wonder thu
, poor bird paid the forfeit Of his life t.
. such an achievement. What wondrou.
=. power of perception guided him, il
: that tremendous flight, dashing through
y the boundlcss and untried CULTS Of thu
I, upper air, on and on, speeding like
bullet to its mark, over sea and shore
, still straight onward, from the tlazin!
u tropics to the dark, ned north outs'ri
y ping the %equinoclial gale as he few
= and pausing not till he reached TIL
home flom which he had been taken
reached it and dropped dead! Was
reason was it instinct? All, that i
the same old question which the phil
osophers have discussed for so man,
generations without result. What i
instinct, what is reason-where doe
y one end and the other begin? Do the,
merge into each other, and blend ii
. an undistinguishahly connected line
without any pcrccptible points of dem
arcation,-as Darwin's monkeys an
:; men are said to do? Or arc they dis
tinct and unrelated powers? What i
instinct, lift is not reason ANU wha
, is intuition? There is an instinct tina
impcls the new born babe to see
. nourishment at its mothers breast. an
sends the far wandering bee in q matIl
cmatical line directly home to its dis
tant hive-leading it to strike the ex
- act spot where the little aperture i
from which it had emerged, and if thi
he changed by removing it even a
a inch from its accustomed place, tn
v bee will strike the spot where it was
r. and for a moment he confused till h
finds it in its new place. Is this tn
a instinct that leads the carrier pigeo
home? Whatever iL is, the mysteriou
!. pc yer is something really wonderful
# and not the least SO to him who i
. most accustomed to think, and loo.
Il into the cause Of things.