Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-01-01
Animals Returning to Their Accus.
toned Haunts.

lHE bOSJOn 1TUDet(Sf nOJeS tlldt tue Sill
gular facility with which certain animals
return to their accustomed abodes after
having been taken away to strange and
distant places, has always been subject
of wonder. No philosophical reason has
ever yet been assigned for the faculty,
power by which animals are thus enabled
to find their way home without any guide
other than p ire instinct, or some superior
and still more mysterious faculty. The
cat, though Carried from home to great
distance by q tortuous path, and so con-
cealed as to have seen nothing on the
ground over which it was taken, as not
even to know the direction of its journey,
will turn its steps, in the first moment OF
its freedom, to its wonted haunts. Migra-
tory birds, after months of absence from
their native places, will return with fault
less certainty to build their nest in the
same neighborhood, and upon the same
cherished tree. The means by which this
is accomplished is beyond human reason
or knowledge. The intuitive power which
IL involves battles scientific investigation,
and it has not entered into the magma
ton of man to conceive of the
physical or soul capacity with
which animals are thus endowed.
A late number of the Bulletin de Ia
,Soctete Royal Pr0tectrice des Ansnanr,
published Mt Brussels, contains some an
ccdotes illustrative of this inexplicable
faculty of animals, which are worth no-
ticing for the benefit of American readers
who are curious in such matters. A dog
was sent, as present to a friend, dis
lance of twenty-five miles. He was con-
veyed in q closed basket in covered car
riage On the night of his arrival at his
place of destination the dog contrived to
make his escape, and before noon the next
day he had returned 10 the point of de-
parture, although the route traversed
chain of steep and rugged mountains.
Two or three cattle disappeared one
night from large herd that was being
driven from the mountains in Wales to
the London market, and it was supposed
that they had been stolen. Five days at
terward the stray cattle appeared at the
place in the mountains from which they
had been driven, having travelled in re-
turning to their first love, at least $50
miles. The incident is not merely veri-
fication Of Scripture, that the OK knoweth
his owner as well as the ass his masters
crib, but II is a complete refutation of the
proverbial libel against the intelligence
of that patient and useful animal.
I
taken TO market alive, being confined in
boxes, in mass The fishermen In Fal-
mouth, in England. are accustomed TO col
lect their crabs jointly, or at least to throw
them into one mass for transportation to
market. They take care, however, to mark
the shells, by branding them with hot
iron In such manner as that each one
may know the lot which belongs to him.
When thus marked they are packed in
boxes ana conveyed to market In boats,
some ten miles from the rocky clefts
whence they are taken. In one instance,
when boat load thus marked and packed
bad reached Falmouth harbor within
mile or two, one of the boxes was broken,
and considerable number OF the impris-
oned crabs made their escape simultane-
ously, and, il would seem, by con-
certed arrangement. Plunging into
the water, the happy iugitiyes
made their way home TO their
native erannies, where, three days after
ward, the fishermen found many of them,
recognizing them by the brand of slavery
upon their backs. They had travelled ten
miles, at least, on their homeward jour
ney. 1t was necessary, in the first place,
that they should find their way from the
boat to the entrance OF the harbor OF Fal-
mouth, from whence they directed their
steps To the rocks Of Cape Lizard. But
how they should have known whether to
turn to the right or to the left, is the
greatest mystery of this extraordinary
feat. How they got over the distance
which separated them from their rocky
habitats, is less mysterious, for they were
probably Of the species called soldier"
crabs, and accustomed, 1t may be, 10 long
marches 1t is not uncommon in the
West Indies, where they abound, to find
them upon foraging expeditions six or
eight miles from the shore.
The most remarkable instance of the
mysterious and unerring faculty by which
under all conceivable circum-
stances, are enabled TO find their way
home through strange districts of coun-
try, and from great distances, remains to
be related. The Archduke and the Arch
duchess of Austria spent portion of
last winter at Mention, where, in the hotel
In which they lodged, was black spaniel
Of remarkable beauty, and captivating
"tricks and manners" The Archduchess
became 80 attached to him that upon her
return to Vienna she persuaded the land
lord to allow him TO accompany her.
The little spaniel was soon installed in the
every mark oftenderness and consideration
that might lead him to forget his old home
and associates. But the fascination Of q
residence at court had no power over his
better nature. One day he suddenly dis
appeared, and every effort to discover his
whereabouts was unavailing. There was
CONSERVATION and grief at Vienna, but at
Mention there was surprise and joy. The
faithful spaniel appeared in the course Of
a few days at his old home, covered with
dust and fainting with fatigue. He had
found his way back through country
wholly unknown to him, having travelled
a distance Of about 500 miles. But the
devotion Of the animal had been mani
tested at the cost of his life. The priva-
tions and extraordinary exertions Of his
journey had induced disease Of the
lungs, from which in few days he died.