The Red Cloud chief., 1880-12-23
The Sens. Of Dir.es,.. IN A.i.ais.

AsgxrLExAS writes TO the Popular
SrieS. Monthly:
was yery much interested in the
account. published in your July num-
Der. If the experiments with the intel
ligent Cincinnati dog. and ] think the
TACT. there developed tend strongly TO
the proof Of q theory that ! have long
believed TO be correct. viz: that some
o. the lower animals are endowed with
sen Of location and direction which at
most il only fundamentally possessed
by man. I do not think that the feats Of
the carrier-pigeon can be accounted for
on the theory Of any finite Development
Of the sense OF sight. smell or hearing.
aud the action Of h~oney-bees presents
the same difficulties 10 persons familiar
with the habits OF these interest ng in
sects. In searching for wild honey. the
bee-hunter provides himself with q
small box with a sliding door; inside
Of this box he nuts some sweet sub
stance as a bait for the bees. When
several bees have collected in the box,
he closes the lid. As soon As they have
finished eating. he releases a bee,
which. after ascending high enough to
clear the surrounding trees, makes .
..bee-line" for its hive. The hunter
marks this direction and carries his box
of al right angles To the line made by
the first bee, and releases another bee;
he carefully marks the direction taken
by this second bee. and if they are both
the same swarm, the hive will be found
at the point where these two lines
meet.
l might cite well-authenticated cases
of cats, pigs and dogs finding their way
home, where such q feat would seem
impossible to man under like circum-
stances; nv object, however. was not
to theorize, but simply 70 record what
l consider some interesting Observa-
tions bearing upon this subject.
Last spring. l built q trout-pond in
nv garden, on the west side Of a rum
ming brook discharging about six hun
dred cubic feet OF water per minute.
The brook is quite rapid where it passes
the pond. and the surface Of the pond
is some five feet higher than the sur
face of the brook. The pond is supplied
with water brought two thousand feet
in underground pipes and discharged
in a fountain in the center of the pond.
Common bull-frogs (Rana pipiens) Oc-
casicnally find their way into this
pond. On the 18th of last July l found
three frogs in the pond, and shot all OF
them with a'pistol. / dipped them up
with a scoOp-net, and found two OF
them shot through the body, and the
other, a little fellow, weighing about
49, ,,c, ,lnt anrpcc thu honH
the bullet just raising the skin and
leaving a white streak acrOss its dark
green surface. l emptied the three
frogs out of the net into the swift
running water of the brook, and they
foated down stream out of sight. On
the 18th of July, the day following, l
found the wounded frog in the pond
again. and readily recognized it by the
scar from the bullet. l found no diff
Guilty in catching it in the scOOp-net,
and, fearing that the seal might disap-
peal from its back, l cut off the center
toe OF its right foot. put the frog into a
paper bag. carried it down the brook
across a bridge, and finally threw it
into the stream some one hundred yards
below the pond:
On the 9th Of July l found the frog
back again. caught it, and. SO as toleave
no doubt about its identification, l cut
off the middle toe of the left foot. l
then put the frog in the paper bag,
started from the pond in a northeast
course, stopped and whirled the bag
around so as to confuse any ideas that
it might have had of direction, and then
changed my course, and finally released
the frog on the opposite side OF the
brook in an Oat-field about an eighth of
a mile in an easterly direction from the
pond. To prevent the frog from get
ting any idea from watching me, l
passed on after releasing it. and did not
90 back again to the pond for several
hours. Three days afterward l saw the
frog in the pond again. but it was so
wild that l could not catch it with my
SCOOP net, and l afterward tried various
devices to capture it alive. but the mo-
ment it saw me approach the pond it
would Jump in and remain hidden in the
stones at the bottom until | left. Finally,
despairing of catching it alive. and hav-
ing some doubts about its identity, on
the 9th of August l shot it, and recog-
nized it by the absence of the cutoff
toes.
The general direction is uphill from
the point where the frog was last re-
leased to the pond. and about the same
distance in a down-hill course would
have taken the frog to the Ausable
River. It still remains possible that
the frog waited until night, and then
followed nv tracks back to the pond,
but that seems improbable, 1 think;
even more so than to believe that the
frog knew all the time the direction of
the pond. and slowly worked its way
back again As inclination prompted.
Anecdotes Of Artemus Ward.