Evening star., 1896-07-04
THE HORSES SIXTH SENSE.
Strange Action of Two Horses Cross
Ing the Prairies.

Strange Action Of Two Horses Cross
ing the Prairies.
From the New York Mercury.
The exodus from the east to the Pacific
coast in the early sos is a matter of his
tory. Gold discoveries furnished the mo-
tive, and the American instinct to "go
west" gave the movement its Impetus
I was stopping with family in Illinois
There were four grown sons and two
daughters, and five other young men
hands
The imagination Of the young men became
infiamed by the stories Of fabulous for
tunes made by those who were brave enough
to undergo the hardships and privations
consequent upon removing to the west at
that time, and the ardor of young blood
finally overcame the objections of age, the
farm was leased to neighbor, and we soon
found ourselves on our way to the bound
less vest
We he'd three wagons, drawn by four oxen
each; one wagon drawn by two horses, and
having ten mares and a stallion and some
hfty head Of loose cattle, cows and heifers.
We got across the Missouri river and our
only sustenance thereafter for our stock
was grass and our only object for the sum
mer was to put as many miles as possible
between us and civilization
we USED TWO mares to drive the loose cat
tie which left seven, and sometimes eight
10 take along. and as the cattle and horses
90 not drive well together, 1t required two
persons to handle them. That part OF tho
cavalcade was turned over to me. with a
twelve-year-old boy as assistant,
In course of time 1t came about that was
sent on ahead to find suitable canning
ground, or back after stray COW or to
communicate with the trains behind us.
lnere was large emigration that year, and
the road was lined with trains and was
fref
night. On returning from these trims the
camp or train was hard to find, as they very
often went off the road to camp, sometimes
as as 1ar as mile l soon found that the stal-
lion and young bay mare could always
nnd our company, while no other of the
mares In our band could do it, at least. not
SO Wen. Either of the animals referred to
could tell in a moment where our train bad
left the road. or if it had passed along evan
II hundreds of other horses and cattle had
passed after. And they would follow on and
finds his game q .iouiiu
The horse, when he could see the hand
would neigh and go to them, but the mare
depended altogether on tracing, and did not
appear 10 look for the others until quite
close upon them. f
One afternoon I went away to look I'm q
stray COW, which was supposed to have
wandered off among The hills I'M tho creaix-
thns LIS was .., IN .ne Platte river country, where
river l travelled along up the creek and
over the hills, but found no COW
AS nlgnt was approaching, and a storm
brewing, abandoned the search and struck
out for camp. To retrace the route 7 had
traversed would have taken more time than
l had at my disposal, and accordingly 7
struck over the hills toward the river and
across bottom several miles wide. Night
came, and with 1t a driving rain 1t was
very dark. but knew the road was ahead
OF me somewhere. So l gave the mare her
head. and trusted to luck and her ability for
tracking. which was unable to comprehend.
1t was a smooth, open country, and, as go
Ing on was no worse than stopping 1 al
lowed the mare to take me whittier she
would.
She walked steadily along, and after n
while stopped, put down her head. and whin
MED. 1 dismounted and found we were in
the road. l remounted, shook loose the
br1die reins and urged the mare forward
She tracked a few steps along the road nm
decidedly, then turned and took the hack
trail. She went perhaps half a mile. turned
abruptly to the right, went around a grove
of trees into bend Of the river and there
was our camp light in a tent
People say that animals do this by scent
but In this cannot agree. think animals
have some faculty which we have not vet
been able to discover. Probably 300 horses
and cattle, with wagons and people had
passed over the road, yet the mare knew
that her company was not among them. To
suppose that she followed by scent is to
attribute to her the power of excluding
other and much stronger scents, and also q
power and delicacy Of smell very difficult
for us to conceive Of. The question sug-
gests itself: Have animals a sixth sense
that we, as yet do not know Of?