THE SENSE OF DIRECTION IN ANIMALS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sra,—Perhaps you will allow me to add yet another to the many interesting instances of the astounding sense of direction in animals recorded in your pages. My cousin, the late Sir Frederick Weld, G.C.M.G., while Governor of the Straits Settlements, once headed an expedition through the hitherto unexplored up-country lying between Malacca and Perak. His object was to ascertain whether it would be feasible to construct a central trunk-road, passing through and connect- ing the protected native States of Sunjei Ujong, Selangor, and Perak. It must be borne in mind that the greater part of the country traversed consisted of trackless primeval forest and "secondary jungle" interspersed with rivers and swamps, and sparsely inhabited by a few families of Sakeis (or aboriginals of the Malay Peninsula), with here and there a Malay village. The explorers were carried on the backs of some fifteen or twenty elephants. There were no tracks of any kind, so that a way had to be forced by the leading elephants, which travelled in Indian file, tearing asunder the network of creepers, uprooting saplings and young trees, and trampling down the undergrowth beneath their enormous feet as they went. This necessarily slow progress occasioned considerable straggling, with the result that on one occasion, as night was drawing on, the last of the line of elephants got separated from those in front. After various fruitless wan-
derings, its mahout (or driver) was compelled to confess that he had no idea of his own whereabouts, nor could he so much as imagine what had become of the remainder of the party. It was now past eleven o'clock at night, and pitch dark. At last Captain J. G. Mayne, aide-de-camp to the Governor, who was riding on the elephant, suggested to the mahout that the sagacious beast should be left perfectly free to follow its own instinct,—with the happy result that, in about three. quarters of an hour, it had rejoined its companions. The rest of the party had reached camp some four or five hours before, and were much relieved when the missing elephant appeared on the scene bearing its precious human freight safely on its back. On this occasion, at least, animal instinct seems to have surpassed human reason.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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