New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1884-10-15
Our Five Senses.

We speak Of five senses, and perhaps
have never thought there could be any
other.
But we have others. One Of Of these
may be called the s'Sense Of Direction =
This is possessed in but slight de-
gree by men who live in cities, but men
who live wild life on the plains or in
forests, often have it in q high degree.
There are many animals whose sense
OF direction is wonderful. A pigeon,
of what is knoWn'as the ..homing' vari-
ETY., taken from New York City to Co
lumbus, O., in q box within a car, and
released, will rise in the air, make 3
circuit or two, and Immediately COM
nence, with the most unerring GER
tainty, q Decline for its little box in
New York. A cat, put in close bag
and taken ten or twenty miles from her
home at night, will appear at her former
haunts early next morning. This
sense of direction" is common among
animals. It is as unerring as the sense
Of sight.
In attempting to explain the ..sense
of direction, it has been suggested that
the animal observes and keeps track of
all the wanderings and turnings, and
his home.
When man is riding in the cars, if
he shuts his eyes, he cannot tell in what
direction he is going. With his eyes
bandaged, let him stand between two
seats and turn round dozen times,
then sit down upon one of the seats,
and he cannot tell whether he is going
backwards or forwards. How then can
pigeon, shut in close box within a
car, take notice of the scenery and make
calculations about directions?
During one of our camping trips in
California, tried to show a party of
friends the magnificent scenery seen
from the top of Mount Diablo. We
stayed too long, and before we reached
Martinez, finding ourselves on astrange
and dark road, concluded to 60 into
camp by the roadside and wait till
morning. NV teamster came to say
that we had no hay, and after some re-
Election directed Joe, the big Norwe-
gian, to put our small, bright mules
before the herder wagon, and he and l
would 20 into the village of Martinez
for some bales of hay. We had to trust
the mules to keep the road, and when
we reached the village found the streets
very dark. At the little tavern we were
directed to a livery in the suburbs.
There they told us to go to a citizen
down at the end of street. At the
fifth place we found the desired hay,
and having, as we thought, kept the
points of the compass, started back to
camp. After cropping about here and
there, we gave up trying to find our
wAy, let the reins fall and gave Jim
and Bob their heads. They soon con-
trived to turn corner, and going in a
direction which we agreed was wrong,
took us back to our camp and / have no
doubt by the shortest possible route.
On another occasion, when we were
in the Upper Sierra Nevada Mountains,
I strayed. from my party while ex-
aiming remarkable canyon, and
found, with great alarm, that l was
lost. Leaving the saddle, I climbed to
On elevated point. and was delighted to
see what I had no doubt was the loca-
ton of our camp. Again in the saddle,
/ started Pinto toward the camp. He
tried to turn the other way, but l in
sisted. The moment let the reins drop
he would turn around. At length, for
it was now almost dark, I threw the
reins on Pinto's neck, with the excla-
nation, well, 60 ahead; | shall not
leave your back till we are in camp, if
it takes twenty-four hours He
turned and started on a pace which
would mean on a mountain trail 8
broken neck for an eastern horse, and
in less than half an hour, showing
meanwhile, in the motion of his head
and ears, an increasing pleasure, he
carried me into camp, where found
my companions saddling for q search.
--Dso Lesois, IN LeaOis' Monthly.