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PUBLISHERS’ ADVERTISEMENT.
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THERE are few subjects more interesting than
the natural history of quadrupeds. Although sep-
arated immeasurably from man, as possessing
none of the higher attributes of his nature, and as
being designed for a totally distinct and infinitely
inferior end, they claim, by the perfection of their

compogee! organization, to be classed physically in

the next grade below him in the scale of animated

nature. Among the most consummate and ad-
mirable, therefore, of the terrestrial works of the
great Creator, and signally manifesting his won-
der-working skill, his unspeakable wisdom, power,
and goodness, the study of their organization, and
character, and habits, cannot be otherwise than
highly entertaining and instructive.

The volume here offered to the public will be
found to contain a very full account of many of
the most interesting of this class of animals, and
is richly embellished with cuts exhibiting their
form, manners, &c. ‘The work was first published

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iv ADVERTISEMENT. »

in the series of the British Society for the Dif-
fusion of Useful Knowledge, and has been care-—

_ fully revised, and such portions as were chiefly
of local interest have been a from

present edition.
es

Pde S ork, Cai, 1839.

COON TENE &

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION . : ; é

CHAPTER II,

THE Uses of MENAGERIES

Animals of different Natures in ‘one Cage

Menagerie of the ‘Tower

Menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes.

CHAPTER MII.

THE Doc.—Esquimaux Dog.
Newfoundland Dog .

- Dogs of Kamtschatka :
Spanish Mastiffs, from Cuba”
American Wild Dogs
Dogs of Great St. Bernard
Varieties of Dog

CHAPTER IV.

Tue Wotr . :

Black Wolf ‘ 3 : -
Clouded Wolf . 5 ° °
American Wolves. ‘ -
The Jackal F e
The Fox.—The Cross Fox é °
CHAPTER V.

THE Hyava ss. oe
Striped Hyena . : .
Spotted Hyena ° :

CHAPTER VI.

Tue Lion . : é : i
A 2

Vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TIGER : - °
Lion-tiger Cubs 4
The Leopard . ° °
The Puma : ‘ 2
The Domestic Cat. 4

CHAPTER VIlii.

THe CaMEL : ; F :
- CHAPTER IX.
THe CaMEL (continued) . .
CHAPTER X.
THE LLAMA : ’ «4a :
“i CHAPTER XI.
THE GIRAFFE

CHAPTER XII.
-ANTELOPES

The Gazelle , ‘ M
The Springbok . J 5 aa
The Gnu . 3 . °
The Hartebeest 3 .
The Elk . 3 ‘ : 2

The Chamois

CHAPTER XIII.

DEER . ’ : : ‘ : .
The Red Deer . . “ a
The Roe . f :
The Fallow Deer %

CHAPTER XIV.

THe REINDEER . : : : ;
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ILLUSTRATIONS.

. Group of Animals- -~ -
. Esquimaux Dog -

. Esquimaux Dogs and Sledge
Man with Dog and Cart -
. Spanish Mastiffs - - °
. Dog of St. Bernard -

: Sick Tiger and § ane biteh
Wolf - °

. Clouded Wolf
10. Jackal -
11. Cross Fox -
12. Striped Hyena
13. Spotted yee
14. Lion -

_15. Lion’s Paw - -
16. Grasshopper’s Foot -
17. Portion of Lion’s Tongue

ode tad

18. Tiger - - - -

19. Lion-tiger Cubs - °

20. Leopard :

at: Bee sard: Pig ae by a Mirror
22. Puma -

23. Arabian Camel -

24. Camels fighting -

25x ee: Foot -
altof Camels’ -

27. Camels a -

28. Llama - -

29. Giraffe -

30. Giraffe’s Tongue - .

31. Gazelle - -

ae 8 One ate 8

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41. Lapland Family

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Vill<y, ILLUSTRATIONS.
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36. Red Deer - a) Peers = s =
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QUADRUPEDS.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.

Naturat History has been called the science of
observation, as distinguished from other sciences
which are founded upon calculation or experiment.
From this peculiarity, Natural History is, in many
respects, the most easily pursued, and the most
agreeable in the pursuit, of all the various branches
of human inquiry and study. Its limits as a science
are almost boundless; for scientific naturalists are
daily adding some new or uncommon specimen to
our previous collections of animal, vegetable, or
mineral nature. At the same time, every detached
object of this science, every quadruped, bird, rep-
tile, fish, worm, or insect ; every flower, every piece
of metal, crystal, or stone, not only excites greater
interest when we have acquired, by careful investi-
gation, a knowledge of its properties, but leads the
mind forward to new subjects of curiosity. Asan
observer of nature, every man has it in his power
to become a naturalist, in a greater or less degree.

Although every one possesses this power, and has
thus abundant opportunities of adding largely to his
stock of intellectual enjoyment, there are many who
pass through life without the slightest regard to
those wonders and beauties of the creation by which

10 INTRODUCTION.

the savage and the civilized man, that the one has
no respect for the qualities of the living beings or

inanimate substances among which he is placed, ex-

cept as they minister to his physical wants; while
the other, without neglecting their subservience to
his necessities or comforts, views them likewise
with reference to all the conditions of their exist-
tence—considering each variety of the whole world
of Nature, whether separately or in groups, wheth-
er individually perfect or in parts, as affording the
most striking illustrations of the extraordinary adap-
tation of every existing thing to the purposes for
W it was created—the most complete proofs of
the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. This
distinction between the savage and the civilized man
has been produced by habit and education. The
savage has constantly to seek the precarious means
of maintaining life; for he has not learned those
useful arts, and those combinations of individual
power, by which a supply of food and raiment is
systematically provided for the necessities of soci-
ety. Men advanced in civilization have the full
advantages, first, of the division of labour, by which
those whom habit has rendered expert are enabled
to supply our necessary wants, for instance, of clo-
thing ; and, secondly, of mechanical power, by which

otherwise be tedious and laborious. Iti is fre m th
circumstances that we have all some leisure to :
quire knowledge ; while the general sta of in-
formation which is possessed by society is insensibly
diffused among all its members, and reaches even
the minds of the most uncultivated.

- .

operations are rendered short and easy, which wo ould

wl

they are surrounded. It is the distinction between ©

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INTRODUCTION. 11

It is thus the positive duty of all to acquire knowl.
edge, by observation, by reflection, by reading, by
listening to the informed; for the greater the por.

tion of the general stock of knowledge which each
individual is enabled to acquire, the more is his own
well-being promoted, and the more is. society ben-
efited. Knowledge is not limited in its quantity,
and is not, in our times, of necessity confined to
particular classes. Every one, however humble,
may appropriate to himself some of its most valu-
able treasures; for its stores are always large
enough for the supply of every demand, and the
more they are drawn upon, the more inexhaust-
ible appears to be the fund from which they are de-
rived. ,

The first step in the successful communication
of any branch of knowledge is to awaken the atten-
tion of the mind to the object or assemblage of ob-
jects to which that branch of knowledge applies.
Without a habit of attention to the things around
them, men walk about in the world with their eyes
half shut; for they are insensible to all but the com-
monest external appearances, and have no percep-
tion of the minuter peculiarities which distinguish
one class of objects from another, of the beauties of
their structure, or of the harmonies of their arrange-
ment. Take an example: engaged as we are in
the ordinary pursuits of life, in our business and in
our pleasures, it is but rarely that we bestow atten-
tion upon those most stupendous works of a ruling
Providence: the sun, the planets, the myriads, of
stars, of which it might be thought that the bare
contemplation would awaken in us a feeling of un-
bounded wonder and admiration. It is only when

12 INTRODUCTION.

some singular appearance of those vast and glorious
bodies presents itself—when we behold an eclipse
or a comet—that the greater number of us have
- our attention excited to the objects with which the
science of Astronomy is conversant. It is at such
moments that the accidental awakening of our at-
tention should be seized upon by us, to acquire the
particular knowledge relating to the circumstance
by which the spirit of inquiry was roused; for we
may reasonably entertain a conviction, that if we
refer to some intelligent instructer, or seek for an
explanation in some proper book, we shall not only
satisfy ourselves upon the point in doubt, but be led
_ forward to fecha interest in many other details,
which would lay the foundation of a scientific knowl.

edge of the laws which govern the heavenly bodies.

This would be to acquire the habit of bestowing
attention upon a subject which we had previously
disregarded ; and we should find this habit a source
of infinite amusement and instruction, not confined,
as we might have thought, to those who survey the
heavens from splendid observatories, and with the
help of the most perfect glasses, but equally capa-
ble of affording delight, and being of use to the way-

faring man who plods onward to his home, and to the ©

labourer who rises to his work before the morning.
star has disappeared. ere will be delight wher-
ever there is this habit of observation. But the

habit will not come if we do not cultivate the spirit
of inquiry. We have heardastory of a pedagogue —

in a small village, who, having joined a crowd anx-
iously engaged in watching an eclipse of the sun,
and having been asked, in deference to his superior
learning, what was the cause of this extraordinary

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INTRODUCTION. 13

appearance, replied, “ Oh! it’s only a phenomenon.”
If, when we behold anything extraordinary inna.
ture, we check our instinctive curiosity by saying
to ourselves, “ It’s only a phenomenon,” we shall be
not one step nearer any rational knowledge of that
appearance than if we had never observed it. We
must inquire into the causes of the phenomenon,
which term, phenomenon, properly means an appear-
ance, anything made manifest to us in any way;
and then we shall be led on to the knowledge of
more phenomena, till by degrees we obtain a con-
nected and general insight into the entire subject to
which our attention was accidently directed. |

| It is amazing how much quickness the habit of
observation will impart to the whole intellect, and
how it wiil give it an aptitude for understanding and
enjoying the thing observed. ‘There is nothing, for
instance, So common as to find men wanting in a
perception of picturesque beauty ; of that feeling
which enables some to take great delight in a land.
scape, not only for its extent or the grandeur of
its parts, but for that harmonious arrangement
which is necessary to the effect of a picture, or for
some accidental circumstances of light and shadow,
or of colour, which render the prospect more than
usually attractive. Now this is strictly an acqui-
red faculty, and one whichis produced by the prac-
tice of looking at nature or at the monuments of
art, e this previous adaptation of the vision to
picturesque objects; and a person who enjoys the
faculty (we say enjoy, for it is a source of real
pleasure), is said to possess a “ painter’s eye.” It
is preciscly in the same way that a naturalist, by
constantly observing the peculiarities of animal

B

14 INTRODUCTION:

life, acquires the readiest perception of the differ-
ences in the structure and habits of the great va.
riety of living beings; and he perceives in each
of them qualities which a less practised observer
would entirely overlook. Through this habit of
observation, the science of Zoology, which compre-
hends all that relates to the description and classi-
fication of animals, has been gradually established.
By diligent observation, the peculiar structure of
vast numbers of individual animals has been as-
certained; their habits have been accurately de-
scribed; and many ancient errors, which arose
from hasty examination, have been exploded.
‘This greater acetbey of description has produced
a proportionate accuracy of classification; and
though no system which attempts to arrange every
variety of individual animals according to generic
distinctions can be perfect, because exceptions to
the rule are constantly occurring, yet an approach
to perfection has been made through a more com-
plete understanding of the organization of each
species. ‘Thus, in the more recent scientific works
on Zoology, the accidental circumstances of size,
or colour, or locality, or any identity in unimpor-
tant habits, have ceased to be guides in the classi-
fication of animals ; but the essential peculiarities of
their formation, which chiefly determine their hab-
its, have alone been regarded. We mention this
to point out that the actual observations of succes-
sive naturalists, leading to the accumulation of a
great body of facts, have principally contributed to
the advance of Zoology as a science in modern
times; for the science being wholly founded upon
observation, and not upon previous calculations,

od
-

o

INTRODUCTION. 15

er any series of experiments, the greater our col-
lection of facts, the nearer have we approached
to systematic perfection.

To enable an observer to make any valuable ad-
ditions to this store of zoological knowledge, it is
not necessary that he should be a profound anato-
mist, or skilful in languages, or acquainted with
all the various systems of classification which have
entered, perhaps too largely, into the science of
Zoology in al] ages. Some of the most valuable
materials for our knowledge of animals have been
contributed by unscientific travellers, who have
been content accurately to describe what they saw
and to collect the minutest particulars of the struc-
ture, and, more especially, of the habits of the rare
species of quadrupeds, or birds, or reptiles, or fish-
es, which they had opportunities of seeing in their
natural state. But it is not even necessary that a
lover of nature should be a traveller, or detail the
peculiarities of those creatures only with which we
are not familiar to make very important additions to
Zoology. One of the most instructive and amusing
books in our language, “The Natural History of
Selborne,” was written by the Rev. Gilbert White,
who for forty years scarcely stirred from the se.
clusion of his native village, employing his time,
most innocently and happily for himself, and most
instructively for the world, in the observation and
_ description of the domestic animals, the birds, and
the insects by which he was surrounded. He does
not raise our wonder by stories of the crafty tiger
or the sagacious elephant; but he notes down the
movements of “ the old family tértoise ; is not in-
‘different to the reason why wagtails run round

=

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416 INTRODUCTION.

cows when feeding in moist pastures ;” and watch.

es the congregating and disappearance of swallows
with an industry which could alone determine the
long-disputed question of their migration. Mr.

_ White derived great pleasure from these pursuits,
because they opened to his mind new fields of in-
quiry, and led him to perceive that what appears ac.
cidental in the habits of the animal world, is the re.
sult of some unerring instinct, or some singular ex.
ercise of the perceptive powers, affording the most
striking objects of contemplation to a philosophic
mind. It is in this way that every man may be-
come a naturalist; and the great object which we
propose to ourselves in the collection of the most
interesting facts relating to animals in general, and
in this volume of those which appertain to Quad.
rupeds in particular, will be to excite such a habit
of observation in our readers, that they may accus.
tom themselves to watch the commonest appear-
ances of animal life; and thus derive, from every
inquiry into which their observations may lead
them, a more intimate conviction of the perfection
of that Wisdom, by which the functions of the
‘humblest being in the scale of existence are pre-
scribed by an undeviating law.

We are not about to write a systematic work
on Zoology, which shall comprise every specimen
of the Animal Kingdom; but, with especial refer. —
ence to the plan of diffusing Entertaining and Use-
ful Knowledge, we shall rather attempt to lead the
reader to a gradual acquaintance with the science,
by instructing him in the peculiarities of individual
animals, than to make these peculiarities subordi-
nate to classification. We apprehend that, in

b

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INTRODUCTION. 17

adopting this course, we pursue a natural and in-
teresting mode of communicating a popular knowl.
edge of the subject. It is frequently better to lead
men from the example to the principle, than from
the abstract principle tothe example. This is the
mode in which a practical knowledge is best at-
tained in all things.

There are, however, a few of the great princi-
ples of Zoology, upon which the systems of classi-
fication now in most esteem are founded, which
we may properly explain, in as brief and simple a
manner as possible, before we proceed to individu-
al descriptions.

The Animat Kinepom (scientifically called king-
dom, to distinguish it as a portion of the world of
nature in general) is divided into veriebrated anc
invertebrated animals. ‘The term vertebrated is
derived from vertebre, the Latin name for the
bones of the spine.

Vertebrated animals are, therefore, those which
possess a spine, or bony covering of the spinal
marrow, on the anterior part of which the cranium
or covering of the brain rests. To the sides of the
vertebre are attached ribs, which form the frame-
work of the body. Animals of this division have
all red blood ; a muscular heart; a mouth with a
transverse opening, and of which the jaws move in
the same plane; and distinct organs of vision,
smell, hearing, and taste, all situated in cavities of
the head. They have never more than four limbs,
The division comprises Mammalia, Birds, Reptiles,
and Fishes. ‘The word Mammalia (having teats) ap-
plies to all animals which suckle their young, and is
the proper scientific term for those which are popu-
B 2

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18 INTRODUCTION.
od
larly called Quadrupeds; for the latter term is an
incorrect one when applied exclusively to vivipa-
rous animals (producing their young in a living
state) with four legs, as many of the Reptiles have
also four legs. Whenever, therefore, we popularly
use the term Quadrupeds, speaking generally of the
‘class which we are at present about to describe,
we mean Mammiferous Quadrupeds.

The Invertebrated animals are those which have
no vertebre; of all these the blood is white. They
are scientifically divided into Modluscous animals,
in which the muscies are attached to the skin, with
or without the protection of a shell, such as snails
and slugs; Articulated animals, in which the cover-
ing of the body is divided into rings or segments,
to the interior of which the muscles are attached,
comprehending all insects and worms; and Kadia-
ted animals, in which the organs of motion or sensa.-
tion radiate from a common centre, such as starfish.

Each of the above four classes of Vertebrated
animals have peculiarities of organization, by which
‘they are fitted for the respective states in which
they exist. The various nature of their movements
is always proportioned to the quantity of respiration
distinguishing each class. They thus either walk
or run upon the earth, or fly through the air, or
creep upon the ground, or swim in the water, as
their quantity of respiration is moderate as in quad-
rupeds, or great as in birds, or feeble as in reptiles,
or small, but modified by peculiar arrangements,
as in fishes. Quadrupeds, as we before said, suckle
their young, and are viviparous. The whale, and
several other species, which are popularly regarded
as fishes, belong to the class Mammalia, on account

" me 4

INTRODUCTION. 19

> «

of the great characteristic of suckling their young.
Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, being oviparous, or
laying eggs, leave their young to other nourishment
than that of their own bodies.

The peculiar organization of QuapRuUPEDs will
be described, as occasion offers, in_our notice of
the individual specimens. The Orders into which
they are now more generally divided are determin-
ed, first, by the organ of touch, which regulates the
ability of the animal to seize upon any object, and
upon which its dexterity mainly depends ; and, sec-
endly, by those of mastication, which prescribe the
nature of the food proper to each species. Lin-
neeus, whose authority as a writer on Natural His.
tory was for a long time considered unquestionable,
divided the orders of quadrupeds solely according
to the peculiarities of their teeth; but this system,
although natural to a certain extent, has been con-
sidered as producing great anomalies and unnatural
combinations. ‘The systems of Cuvier, Blumen-
bach, and other distinguished naturalists of our own
day, are founded upon a consideration of the pe-
culiarities both of the teeth and of the organs of
touch. These systems, therefore, being formed with
especial reference to the two great distinctions which
determine the most important habits of the animal
are called “natural systems.” Without offering a
opinion upon the relative merits of the more mod
ern systems of classification, we subjoin for the
present a general view of the principles which have
guided the zoologists of the best authority.

The class of Quadrupeds admits of ¢ division
into two tribes :

20 INTRODUCTION, ts”
; eae -—
|. Those whose extremities are divided into
fingers or toes, scientifically called Unguicu.
lata, from the Latin word for nail. ae

il. Those whose extremities are hoofed,
scientifically called Ungulata, from the Latin
word for hoof. ~

I. The extremities of the first tribe are armed
with claws or nails, which give them a capability
of grasping objects, of climbing, of burrowing.
The animals thus distinguished are susceptible of
great variations in their modes of subsistence ;
which variations are partly determined by different
modifications of the power of touch, and partly by
differences in the form of the cheek-teeth.

Some have extremities formed for grasping, hav-
ing the faculty of opposing a thumb to the other
fingers, which faculty resides in, or is communicated
by, that portion of animal structure which is prop-
erly called a hand. Man possesses this faculty in
the highest perfection ; but monkeys and bats are
distinguished by having a// their extremities capable
of this power; and they are thus called Quadruma-
ma, or four-handed. if S57

The remaining orders of the first tribe have no
thumb capable of free motion; and they are classed
according to the form of their cheek-teeth, which
determines their choice of food. | |

The Quadrumana and the Carnivora (eaters of
flesh) have molar or grinding-teeth (which we
eall cheek-teeth), canine-teeth, and cutting-teeth.
Those which have the cheek-teeth feed partly or
wholly on flesh, and these teeth are adapted for

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, ee ays
Cutting that substance ; while the jaws are fitted to.
gether so as to move in the manner of a pair of
scissors, and are incapable of any other motion than
that of opening and closing again in a vertical di-
rection. Some of these carnivorous animals, as well
as other orders of the fingered quadrupeds, walk on
the soles of the feet, as bears, and are called Plan-
tigrada ; some on the extremities of the feet, as
cats, and are called Digitigrada; and some are
web-footed, as seals,and are called Palmata. The
remaining animals of the first tribe want the ca-
nine-teeth, and have cutting-teeth in the front of the
mouth, as rats and rabbits. ‘They are called Ro-
dentia by Cuvier, which signifies gnawing; and
Glires by Linneus. Cuvier makes another division,
ealled Edentata, which are defective in the incisive
teeth, and of which some want the canine-teeth, and
some are even destitute of teeth altogether.
Among the Unguiculata, or fingered Quadrupeds,
there are very few which are used by man as food.
Many of them are noxious or ferocious. The dog
and the cat are the only species of the carnivorous
erders which have been rendered domestic, al-
though many have their natural instincts subdued
or restrained by their contact with mankind.

II. The extremities of the Ungulata (Hoofed
tribe) are exclusively employed to support and move
the body. These animals do not possess the power
of grasping objects, of climbing, or burrowing.
They are all Herbivorous, or feeding on vegetables.
Their teeth are fitted for the mastication of grain
or roots, by having a flattish round upper surface ;
and their jaws possess the capacity of moving in

INTRODUCTION. 21.

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22 INTRODUCTION. — :
the same plane. ‘Their teeth are also of unequal
hardness, so that they have the power of crushing,
like the unequal surfaces of a millstone. . Cuvier
divides the hoofed animals into, 1, Pachydermaia, .
or thick-skinned, among which are the horse and
the elephant; and, 2, Auminantia, or those which
ruminate or chew the cud, such as cows and sheep.
Among this tribe, man, whether in a rude or civil-
ized state, principally and almost exclusively finds
his food from wild or from domesticated animals.
This tribe also furnishes him with the most valuable
assistance in agriculture, in the chase, and in the
carriage of commodities.

In giving this very brief, and, therefore, imperfect
sketch of the leading principles of classification,
we have only thrown out a few hints for such of
our readers as may desire, in the outset, to view
the subject of Zoology as a science, ;

CHAPTER IL.
ON MENAGERIES.

TxE literal meaning of the word Menagerie
points out one of the principal objects of a collection
of various living animals. Ménagerie is derived
from the French word ménager, from which we de-
rive our English verb to manage. The name Mé-
nagerte was originally applied to a place of domes.

ds - MENAGERIES. 23
‘3c animals, with reference to their nurture and
training: it now means any collection of animals.
It may be implied, therefore, that the animals in a
Menagerie are not placed there merely for safe
confinement, but that, by care and kindness, their
noxious or ferocious propensities may there be re-
strained or subdued, and by constant discipline their
habits may there be rendered useful, or at least in-
offensive to man. Daubenton and other distin-
guished naturalists have believed that the ferocity
of many of the carnivorous animals may be entire-

ly conquered in the course of time; that they only

flee from man through fear, and attack and devour
other animals through the pressing calls of hunger ;
and that the association with human beings, and
an abundant supply of food, would render even the
lion, the tiger, and the wolf as manageable as our
domestic animals.. In support of this theory, it
may be observed, that although the tiger and the
domestic cat have many properties in common,
_ the conquest of the latter species is now complete ;
and, farther, that some of the most ferocious ani-
mals, which have been bred in a state of confine-
ment, or taken exceedingly young, have become
perfectly tractable and harmless, with those who
have rightly understood their natures. The acci-
dents which have sometimes occurred to the at-
tendants of wild beasts, and which are attributed
to the treachery of their dispositions, have gener-
ally proceeded from an ignorance of their habits.
The lion, for instance, is not an animal of acute
hearing, and he is therefore awakened with diffi-
culty, particularly after feeding. If he is suddenly
aroused, he instantly loses all presence of mind,

24 NATURAL HISTORY.

and flies off in the direction in which he happens
to be lying. A few years ago, one of the keepers
at Exeter Change was killed through his ignorance
of this peculiarity, which is well known to the
Bushmen of Africa.* The keeper, going into the
den of a lion, and suddenly awakening him, the
animal, seeing no mode of escape, killed the man
under the influence of his natural terror. This
unfortunate circumstance did not proceed from
any unconquerable ferocity in the lion; for, in gen-
eral, he was obedient, and even affectionate. The
habits of his species were not thoroughly under-
stood by those around him; if it had been other.
wise, the keeper would not have placed himself in
a position where the discipline by which the lion
had been rendered grateful would be useless, from
the stronger force of a natural propensity.

But if i be too much to hope that the ferocious
animals may be subdued to our uses through the
education which well-conducted Menageries would
afford, it cannot be doubted that such establish-
ments offer most interesting opportunities for ob«
serving the peculiarities of a great variety of crea-
tures, whose instincts are calculated to excite a rae
tional curiosity, and to fill the mind with that pure
and delightful knowledge which is to be acquired
in every department of the study of nature. The
commonest animals offer to the attentive observer
objects of the deepest interest. When Montaigne,
playing with his cat, says in a quaint way, “who
knows whether puss is not more diverted with me
than | am with puss,” his mind wanders into those
speculations with regard to the delicate lines which
divide instinct from reason, which must naturally

* See p. 139.

MENAGERIES. 25

arise to every one who attentively contemplates
the dispositions of the inferior parts of the living
creation. ‘To those who philosophize or to those
who do not, the instinct and intelligence of animals
are always interesting ; and toa feeling mind they
are doublyso. ‘The poet Cowper, when he sat for
hours in his study watching the gambols of his
three tame hares, forgot that gloom which consti.
tutionally preyed upon him, in his sympathy with
the innocent happiness of the poor beings whom he
had taught, first not to fear him, and afterward to
love him. These three hares, and his spaniel and
cat, formed Cowper’s Menagerie, and it afforded
him both delight and instruction.

All associations between animals of opposite na.
tures are exceedingly interesting ; and those who
train animals for public exhibition know how at-
tractive are such displays of the power of discipline
over the strength of instinct. These extraordina-
ry arrangements are sometimes the eflect of acci-
dent, and sometimes of the greater force of one in-
stinct over the lesser force of another. A rat.
catcher having caught a brood of young rats alive,
gave them to his cat, who had just had her kittens
taken from her to be drowned. A few days after.
ward, he was surprised to find the rats in the place
of the drowned kittens, being suckled by their nat.
ural enemy. ‘The cat had a hatred to rats, but
she spared these young rats to afford her the re-
lief which she required as a mother. The rat-
catcher exhibited the cat and her nurslings to con-
siderable advantage.* A somewhat similar exhi-
bition exists at present. There is a little Mena-
* Brodorip.

Cc

re)
*

26 NATURAL HISTORY.

gerie in London, where such odd associations may
be witnessed upon a more extensive scale, and
more systematically conducted than in any other
collection of animals with which we are acquainted.
Upon the Surry side of Waterloo Bridge, or some-
times, though not so often, on the same side of
Southwark Bridge, may be daily seen a cage about
five feet square, containing the quadrupeds and
birds which are represented in the annexed print.
The keeper of this collection states that he has
employed seventeen years in this business of train-
ing creatures of opposite natures to live together
in content and affection. And those years have
not been unprofitably employed! It is not too
much to believe, that many a person who has giv-
en his halfpenny to look upon this show, may
have had his mind awakened to the extraordinary
effects of habit and of gentle discipline, when he
has thus seen the cat, the rat, the mouse, the hawk,
the rabbit, the guinea-pig, the owl, the pigeon, the
starling, and the sparrow, each enjoying, as far as
can be enjoyed in confinement, its respective modes
of life, in the company of the others; the weak with-
out fear, and the strong without the desire to in-
jure. It is impossible to imagine any prettier ex-
hibition of kindness than is here shown: the rab.
bit and the pigeon playfully contending for a lock
of hay to make up their nests; the sparrow some.
times perched on the head of the cat, and some.
times on that of the owl, each its natural enemy ;
and the mice playing about with perfeet indiffer-
ence to the presence either of cat, or hawk, or owl.
The modes by which the man has effected this, are,
first, by keeping all the creatures well fed; and,

. =
| 2

A a7

MENAGERIES.

J _
—=> = ’
— = Maa,

LEPC: at Ogee ES
ls of opposite natures living in th

7

Ss SI = ,*

—

e same cage.

= SR

28 NATURAL HISTORY.

secondly, by accustoming one species to the society
of the other at a very early period of their lives.
The ferocious instincts of those who prey on the
weaker are never called into action; their nature
is subdued to a systematic gentleness ; the circum-
stances by which they are surrounded are favoura-
ble to the cultivation of their kindlier dispositions ;
all their desires and pleasures are bounded by their
little cage ; and though the old cat sometimes takes
a stately walk on the parapet of the bridge, he duly
returns to his companions, with whom he has been
so long happy, without at all thinking that he was
born to devour any of them. ‘This is an example,
and a powerful one, of what may be accomplished
by a proper education, which rightly estimates the
force of habit, and confirms, by judicious manage.
ment, that habit which is most desirable to be made
a rule of conduct. The principle is the same,
whether it be applied to children or to brutes.

' Menageries may be considered among the most
rational gratifications of curiosity. All classes of
persons go to see these exhibitions; and it is not
too much to assert that many come away with their
understandings enlarged and their stores of usefui
knowledge increased. Theanimals may be confined
in miserable dens, where their natural movements
are painfully retsrained; the keepers may be lam.
entably ignorant, and impose upon the credulous a
great number of false stories, full of wonderment
and absurdity: but still people see the real things
about which they have heard and read (though
they are not always pointed out to them by their
Fight names), and they thus acquire a body of facts

»

MENAGERIES. 29

which make a striking impression upon their mem

ories and understandings. The sagacity of the ele-
phant and the lofty port of the lion can never be
forgotten. The actual inspection of such collec-
tions of animals, too, gradually obliterates the im-
pressions of these false accounts which the early
naturalists multiplied with a fond credulity, and
which, like all other mysterious stories, took the
firmest hold of the popular mind. People see in
these menageries a great number of rare animals,
brought together from distant parts of the earth,
whose habits are very curious and surprising : but
they never see the Griffin, which is represented as
half beast and half bird; nor the Centaur, which
the poets have described as half horse and half
man; nor the Phcenix, which is drawn as a bird,
and is stated to perish by fire at the end of a hun-
dred years, and then to rise again from its own
ashes. They thus gradually learn to disbelieve the
existence of these things, because the fables to
which they have trusted never receive a confirma-
tion from any living specimen ; while, on the other
hand, the statements of intelligent travellers and
naturalists, which they may have also heard of, are
abundantly proved by the evidence of their own
senses. To acquire the habit of discriminating
between what is true and what is false, to learn to
separate fable from fact, to perceive what parts of
literature belong to the freaks of the imagination,
and what to diligent inquiry and sober reasoning,
this is the very foundation of all valuable knowl-
edge; and to obtain this habit of mind is one of
the happiest consequences of that habit of obser-

C

¥

30 NATURAL HISTORY.

ch, as we have already said, a love for
dy of nature is so fitted to call forth.
A better system of education has instructed us

that there is nothing in nature beneath the atten-

tion of a reasonable being ; that some of the wisest
and most philosophic of mankind have devoted
themselves with a passionate ardour to the cultiva-
tion of Natural History as a science ; and that, if

children feel the deepest interest in safely beholding

those ferocious animals which form such attractive
objects in many of the stories dedicated to their
use, that interest may be readily carried far beyond
the gratification of a passing curiosity, and may
become the excitement to the acquisition of a great
deal of real knowledge, capable of being presented
in the most captivating form.

In the barbarous ages, and till within the last
century, beasts of prey were considered the especial
properties of kings. as something typical of their
power and greatness. In the fortress where the
crown of the ancient English monarchs was kept,
were also confined their lions. ‘These were gener.
ally maintained at the expense of the people, and
sometimes of the civic officers of London, by spe-
cia! writ; and the keeper of the lions was a person
of rank attached to the court. Gradually, this ex-
ertion of the royal prerogative fell into decay ; and
if a foreign potentate presented a tiger or a leopard
to the king, as was often the case with the rulers
of the maritime states of Africa, the animal was
given to the keeper of the menagerie, to add to his
stock of attractions for the public. Farther, no
care was taken of the collection on the part of the
sovereign or the government. It is highly credit.

(oh
MENAGERIES. 31

able to the present keeper that he has a

ne
availed himself of the growing taste for zoological
pursuits, to render his collection in some degree
worthy of a country possessing such opportunities
of obtaining the finest specimens of animal life
which the world can afford.

The kings of France had at Versailles such a
menagerie as the kings of England have had in
the tower. It was at this menagerie that Buffon
and Daubenton studied. In 1793 the collection
was so reduced, that it consisted only of a quagga,
a bubale (the cervine of Pennant), a rhinoceros,
a lion, and a hooded pigeon. ‘The celebrated St.
Pierre, who succeeded Buffon as keeper of the
Jardin des Plantes, where there wasa splendid mu-
seum of natural history, laboured most assiduously to
add a menagerie to the establishment. He succeed.
ed; and the collection was begun with the remnant of
the royal collection of Versailles. The menagerie
of Paris is now one of the principal attractions of
that capital. In the number of its specimens, in
the convenience of its arrangements, and in the
large scale of its accommodation for the animals
according to their respective natures, it is infinitely
superior to any other menagerie, and is therefore
deservedly visited by all foreigners. St. Pierre,
_ among the arguments which he employed for the
formation of this establishment, says, “Colbert at-
tracted many strangers to our capital by the fétes
which he gave to Lewis XIV.; a free nation ought
to invite them thither by the schools of useful knowl.
edge which it opens to the human race.” His ar-
guments were successful.

The establishment of the Ménagerie at the Jar-

~
0,

32 NATURAL HISTORY.

din des Plantes has afforded opportunities for the
study of natural history, which have advanced the
branch of the science that relates to quadrupeds in
a most remarkable degree. ‘The accurate descrip-
tions of Cuvier, of Geoffroy, of Desmarest, and ot
other distinguished naturalists of France, are prin-
cipally to be ascribed to their diligent studies in
this school. Buffon was one of the most eloquent
of natural historians. Wherever he describes,
from actual observation, the appearance, the in-
stincts, and the habits of animals, he is interesting
not only to the learned, but to the least informed
reader. The greater part of what is really valu-
able in his writings is derived from the accurate
study of some individual specimen; and his most.
splendidly coloured portraits are those for which
he had living models. But such opportunities of
gathering materials for fresh and vivid description,
from real, animated nature, were oftentimes want-
ing to Buffon. He occasionally writes from vague
and uncertain narratives; and then, as might be ex-
pected, he is superficial and full of false theories.
His successors have had more extended opportuni-
ties of observation; and the accuracy of their facts,
therefore, leaves us less reason to regret the ab.
sence of those charms of style which render Buffon
one of the most delightful of writers.

The five animals which remained of the mena-
gerie of Versailles were offered to St. Pierre, as.
keeper of the Cabinet of Natural History, to form
skeletons to be added to that collection. He wisely
seized upon the opportunity to combat a prejudice
which then existed, and which even still exists, that
stuffed specimens and anatomical preparations are

MENAGERIES. oO

quite as valuable for the purposes of science as
living animals. Comparative anatomy, which is
doubtless an important part of natural science, may
certainly be studied in museums; but when the
argument is carried farther by those naturalists who
say, “It is sufficient to have the means of examin
ing dead animals, for by such we may learn to dis.
tinguish the species and the kinds of each, as well
as from living specimens,” the indignant answer
of St. Pierre is worthy attention.* ~~

* Those who have studied nature only in books
can see only their books in nature; they look upon
the natural world only to find therein the names
and the characters of their systems. If they are
botanists, they are satisfied to have discovered a
plant of which some author has spoken; and hav-
ing assigned it to the class and the order which he
has pointed out, they gather it, and, spreading it
between two bits of gray paper, they sit down
content with their knowledge and their researches.
They do not form a herbal to study nature, but
they study nature to form a herbal. It is in the
same way that they make collections of animals,
that they may learn their genera and their species,
and treasure up their names. )

“ But can he be a lover of nature who thus stud.
ies her wonderful works? How great a difference
is there between a dead vegetable, dry, faded, dis.
coloured, whose stems, and leaves, and flowers are
crumbling to powder, and a living vegetable, full
of sap, which buds, flowers, gives forth perfume,
fructifies, and sows itself again; maintains a uni-
versal harmony with the elements, with insects,

___* Mémoire sur la Ménagerie. QEuvres de St. Pierre, tom.
xXll., p. 654. Paris, 1818.

|

*

34 NATURAL HISTORY.

with birds, with quadrupeds, and, combining with a
thousand other vegetables, crowns our hills and
adorns our river banks ! |
“Can we recognise the verdure and the flowers
of a meadow in a haystack? or the majesty of the
trees of a forest in a bundle of fagots? ‘The ani-
mal loses by death even more of its characteristics
than the vegetable: for the animal has received
a more vigorous portion of life. Its principal
qualities vanish; its eyes are shut, its pupils are
dim, its limbs are stiff; it is without warmth, with-
out motion, without feeling, without voice, without
instinct. What a difference between the animal
who enjoys the light, distinguishes objects, moves
towards them, calls the female, couples, makes its
nest or lair, brings up its young, defends them from
their enemies, congregates with its kind, and gives
music to our woods and animation to our mead-
ows! Do you recognise the lark, gay as the breath
of morning, who, at ‘heaven’s gate sings,’ when he
is suspended from the beak upon a bit of pack-
thread; or the bleating sheep and the labouring ox
in the well-dressed limbs of a butcher’s shop? The
best prepared animal only offers a stuffed skin and
a skeleton. ‘The life is wanting by which he was
classed in the animal kingdom. The stuffed wolf
may preserve his teeth, but the peculiar instinct
which determined his ferocious character is gone,

and he then scarcely differs from the friendly dog.” —

There is much truth in these remarks, and their
good sense ought not to be overlooked, though
the style in which it is conveyed be somewhat de-
clamatory. For all popular purposes, menageries
offer much more interesting modes of studying

MENAGERIES. 35

some parts, and those the most important, of the
animal kingdom, than the best museum. In this
sense the homely saying is quite correct, that “a
living dog is better than a dead lion.”

It will be the object of this little book to pro-
mote a taste for natural history, by giving faithful
descriptions of living animals, by rejecting all fab-
ulous and doubtful relations, and by leading on-
ward to a more scientific knowledge, through the
medium of what appears to combine the entertain-
ing with the useful. We first desire to fix the
habit of attention upon natural objects. To effect
this, we shall attempt to present some of those ob-
jects to the mind in a way that may excite a ra-
tional curiosity towards what is rare and wonder-
ful; never forgetting to direct it, at the same time,
towards what is familiar,.but not less remarkable.
Everything in nature is full of instruction. The -
intelligence of the elephant and the instinct of the
spider are equally deserving of observation and in-

quiry; and are equally examples of the wisdom
and power of Him who said, “ Let the earth bring
forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and
creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind.”
It is for this cause especially that we consider at-
tention can never be ill bestowed, whether it be
directed to the habits of our humble companions,
such as the dog and the horse, or excited by the
- rarities of foreign lands, as viewed in menageries.
- In such establishments there are various meas.
ures of attraction, as we have already seen; but
there are none without some interest. Even the
wandering Italian, who exhibits his bird and his
dog to every by-stander, has something to show

el teal

36 NATURAL HISTORY.

which may exemplify the force of instinct or of
habit, and thus teach us some one of the lessons
which the whole Book of Nature offers to him who
will read ic aright.

CHAPTER II.

THE DOG.

nil Mv, GA

Ye ag

Esquimauz dog. Canis familiaris Borealis. —DESMAREST.

In the garden of the Zoological Society are some
remarkably fine specimens of dogs; and one of the

THE DOG. 37

finest and most interesting is the dog of the Esqui.
maux. Peter (so he is called) was brought to Eng.
land by Lieut. Henderson, R.N., one of the com.
panions of Captain Ross. This variety of dog
most nearly resembles the shepherd’s dog and the
wolf-dog. The ears are short and erect; the tail
is bushy, and carried in a graceful curve over the
back: in this particular the Esquimaux dog prin-
cipally differs from the wolf of the same district,
whose tail is carried between his legs in running.
The tail turned upward is the distinguishing char-
acteristic of the domestic dog of every variety.
It has been considered by some naturalists that these
dogs are wolves in a state of domestication. The
anatomy of both, for the most part, corresponds ;
the wolf is, however, larger and more muscular.
The average height of the Esquimaux dog is one
foot, ten inches; the length of his body, from the
occiput (the back of the head) to the insertion of
the tail, two feet, three inches ; and of the tail it.
self, one foot, one inch. ‘The dog in the Zoologi-
cal Garden is of a white colour, with somewhat of
a yellow tinge. Some of the Esquimaux dogs are
brindled, some black and white, some almost en-
tirely black, and some are of a dingy red. Their
coat is thick and furry; the hair, in winter, being
‘from three to four inches long: nature has also
provided them with an under coating of close soft
wool at that season, which they lose in spring ;
so that they endure their climate with comparative
comfort. They never bark, but have a long, melan-
choly howl, like the wolf. They are familiar and
domestic, but snarl and fight among themselves
much more than dogs in general. The specimen

ae N ATURAL HISTORY.

in the Zoologicol Garden is good- tempered, and
delights to be noticed and caressed, even by stran-
gers.

The Esquimaux, a race of people inhabiting the
most northerly parts of the American continent and
the adjoining islands, are dependant upon the ser-
vices of this faithful species of dog for most of the
- few comforts of their lives; for assistance in the
chase ; for carrying burdens; and for their rapid
and certain conveyance over 2 trackless: snows
of their dreary plains. ‘The dogs, subjeeted to a
constant dependance upon their masters, receiving
‘scanty food and abundant chastisement, assist them
in hunting the seal, the reindeer, and the bear.
In the summer, a single dog carries a weight of
thirty pounds in attending his master in the pur-
suit of game: in winter, yoked in numbers to heavy
sledges, they drag five or six persons at the rate of
seven or eight miles. an hour, and will perform jour-
neys of sixty miles a day. What the reindeer is
to the Laplander, this dog is to the Esquimaux.
He is a faithful slave, who grumbles, but does not
rebel; whose endurance never tires; and whose
fidelity is never shaken by blows and starving.
These animals are obstinate in their nature: but
the women, who treat them with more kindness
than the men, and who nurse them in their helpless
state or when they are sick, have an unbounded
command over their affections ; and can thus catch
them at any time, and entice them from their huts
to yoke them to the sledges, even when they are suf-
fering the severest hunger, and have no resource
but to eat the most tough and filthy remains of ani-
mal matter vhich they « can espy on their laborious
journeys.

bs

THE DOG. ' 39 |

The mode in which ihe E: Peirce dogs are em.
ployed in drawing the sledge is deseribed ina very
striking manner by Captain Parry, in his “ Journal
of a Second Voyage for the discovery of a North-
west passage.” We should diminish the value of
the narrative were we to abridge it.

“ When drawing a sledge, the dogs have a sim.
ple harness (annoo) of deer or seal skin, going round
the neck by one bight, and another for each of the
fore legs, with a sible thong leading over the back,
and attached: to the sledge as a trace. Though
they appear at first sight to be huddled together
without regard to regularity, there is, in fact, con-
siderable attention paid to their arrangement, par-
ticularly in the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit
and sagacity, who is allowed, by a longer trace, to
precede the rest as leader, and to whom, in turning
to the right or left, the driver usually addresses
himself. . This choice is made without regard to
age or sex; and the rest of the dogs take prece-
- dence according to their training and sagacity,
the least effective being put nearest the sledge.
The leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet
from the fore part of the sledge, and the hindmost
dog about half that distance ; so that when ten or
twelve are running together, several are nearly
abreast of each other. ‘The driver sits quite low,
on the forepart of the sledge, with his feet over-
hanging the snow on one side, and having in his
hand a whip, of which the handle, made either of
wood, bone, or whalebone, is eighteen inches, and
the lash more than as many feet, in length: the
part of the thong next the handle is platted a little
way down to stiffen it and give it a spring, on which

40 NATURAL HISTORY.

much of its use de pends ; and that which compo-
ses the lash is chewed by the women, to make it
flexible to frosty weather. ‘The men acquire from
their youth considerable expertness in the use of
this whip, the lash of which is left to trail along the
ground by the side of the sledge, and with which
they can inflict a very severe blow on any dog at
pleasure. Though the dogs are kept in training
entirely by fear of the whip, and, indeed, without
it would soon have their own way, its immediate
effect is always detrimental to the draught of the
sledge; for not only does the individual that is
struck draw back and slacken his trace, but gener-
ally turns upon his next neighbour, and this, pass-
ing on to the next, occasions a general divergence,
accompanied by the usual yelping and showing of
the teeth. The dogs then come together again by
degrees, and the draught of the sledge is accelera-
ted; but even at the best of times, by this rude
mode of draught, the traces of one third of the dogs
form an angle of thirty or forty degrees on each
side of the direction on which the sledge is advan-
cing. Another great inconvenience attending the
Esquimaux metliod of putting the dogs to, besides
that of not employing their strength to the best
advantage, is the constant entanglement of the
traces by the dogs repeatedly doubling under from
side to side to avoid the whip; so that, after run-
ning a few miles, the traces always require to be
taken off and cleaned. !
“In directing the sledge, the whip acts no very
essential part, the driver for this purpose using cer-
rds, as the carters dc with us, to make the
dogs turn more to the right or left. To these a

41

good leader attends wit nirable precision, es-
pecially if his own name be repeated at the same
time, looking behind over his shoulder with great
earnestness, as if listening to the directions of the
driver. Ona beaten track, or even where a sin-
gle foot or sledge mark is.occasionally discernible,
there is not the slightest trouble in guiding the dogs :
for even in the darkest night and in the heaviest
snowdrift there is little or no danger of their lo-
sing the road, the leader keeping his nose near the
ground, and directing the rest with wonderful sa-
gacity. Where, however, there is no beaten track,
the best driver among them makes a terrible cir-
cuitous course, as all the Esquimaux roads plainly
show ; these generally occupying an extent of six
miles, when, with a horse and sledge, the journey
would scarcely have amounted to five. On rough
ground, as among hummocks of ice, the sledge
would be frequently overturned or altogether stop-
ped if the driver did not repeatedly get off, and,

_ by lifting or drawing it to one side, steer clear of
those accidents. At all times, indeed, except on a
smooth and well-made road, he is pretty constantly
employed thus with his feet, which, together with
his never-ceasing vociferations and frequent use
of the whip, renders the driving of one of these ve-
hicles by no means a pleasant or easy task. When
the driver wishes to stop the sledge, he calls out
‘ Wo, woa,’ exactly as our carters do, but the atten-
tion paid to this command depends altogether on
his ability to enforce it. If the weight is small and
the journey homeward, the dogs are not to be thus
delayed; the driver is therefore obliged to dig his

heels in the snow to obstruct their progress, and,

D2 ans

EN we ~~

42 NATURAL HISTORY.

having thus succeed stopping them, he stands
up with one leg before the foremost crosspiece of
the sledge, till, by means of laying the whip gently
over the dog’s head, he has made them all lie down.
He then takes care not to quit his position, so that,
should the dogs set off, he is thrown upon the sledge
instead of being left behind by them. é

_ With heavy loads, the dogs draw best with one
of their own people, especially a woman, walking
a little way ahead; and in this case they are
sometimes enticed to mend their pace by holding
a mitten to the mouth, and then making the motion
of cutting it with a knife and throwing it on the
snow, when the dogs, mistaking it for meat, hasten
forwardto pick it up. ‘The women also entice them
from the huts in a similar manner. The rate at
which they travel depends, of course, on the weight
they have to draw and the road on which their
journey is performed. When the latter is level,
and very hard and smooth, constituting what, in
other parts of North America, is called ‘good sleigh-
ing,’ six or seven dogs will draw from eight to ten.
hundred weight, at the rate of seven or eight miles
an hour, for several hours together; and will easily,
under these circumstances, perform a journey of
fifty or sixty miles a day.. On untrodden snow,
five-and-twenty or thirty miles would be a good
day’s journey. The same number of well-fed dogs,
with a weight of only five or six hundred pounds
(that of the sledge included), are almost unman-
ageable, and will, on a smooth road, run any way
they please, at the rate of ten miles an hour, The
work performed by a greater number of dogs is,
however, by no means in proportion to this, owing

ms

THE DOG. 43
a
to the imperfect mode already described of employ-
ing the strength of these sturdy creatures, and to
the more frequent snarling and fighting occasioned
by an increase of numbers.”

Esquimaux Dogs and Sledge.

The dogs of the Esquimaux offer to us a striking
example of the great services which the race of
dogs has rendered to mankind in the progress of
civilization. The inhabitants of the shores of Baf.-
fin’s Bay, and those still more inclement regions to
which our discovery ships have recently penetrated,
are perhaps never destined to advance much far-
ther than their present condition in the scale of hu-
manity. Their climate forbids them attempting
the gratification of any desires beyond the com.
monest animal wants. Inthe short summers, they
hunt the reindeer for a stock of food and clothing ;
during the long winter, when the stern demands of
hunger drive them from their snow huts to search
for provisions, they still find a supply in the rein.
‘deer, in the seals which lie in holes und r the ice
of the lakes, and in thé bears which ©

—

ea -

44 NATURAL HISTORY.

on the frozen shores of the sea. Without the ex-
quisite scent and undaunted courage of their dogs,
the several objects of their chase could never be
obtained in sufficient quantities during the winter
to supply the wants of the inhabitants; nor could
the men be conveyed from place to place over the
snow with that celerity which greatly contributes

_totheir success in hunting. In drawing the sledges,

if the dogs scent a reindeer even a quarter of a
mile distant, they gallop on furiously in the direc-
tion of the scent; and the animal is soon within
reach of the unerring arrow of the hunter. They
will discover a seal-hole entirely by the smell at a
very great distance. ‘Their desire to attack the
ferocious bear is so great, that the word nennook,
which signifies that animal, is often used to encour-
age them when running in a sledge; two or three
dogs, led forward by a man, will fasten upon the
largest bear without hesitation. They are eager
to chase every animal but the wolf; and of him
they appear to have an instinctive ‘terror, which
manifests itself, on his approach, in a loud and con-
tinued howl. Certainly there is no animal which
combines so many properties useful to his master
as the dog of the Esquimaux.

With the exception of that most serviceable prop-
erty of drawing and carrying burdens, most of the
various races of dogs have, in a singular manner,
assisted mankind in subduing the earth. In our
own country, the wolf, the brown bear, and the
boar were once common; they are now extirpa-
ted. ‘This result, without which civilization must
have very slowly advanced, could not have been
effected without the assistance of the dog. Cuvier,

THE DOG. 45

the great French naturalist, says, “ the dog is the
most complete, the most remarkable, and the most
useful conquest ever made by man. -Every spe.
cies has become our property; each individual
is altogether devoted to his master, assumes his
manners, knows and defends his goods, and re-
mains attached to him until death; and all this
proceeds neither from want nor constraint, but
solely from true gratitude and friendship. The
swiftness, the strength, and the scent of the dog
have created for man a powerful ally against other
animals, and were, perhaps, necessary to the estab-
lishment of society. He is the only animal which
has followed man through every region of the
earth.” Buffon says, “ The art of training dogs
seems to have been the first invented by man; and
the result of it was the conquest and peaceable pos-
session of the earth.”’ But this art would never
have become perfectly successful and completely
universal, had there not been in the race of dogs a
natural desire to be useful to man; an aptitude for
his society ; a strong and spontaneous longing for
his friendship. Burchell, a distinguished traveller
in Africa, has observed, that we never see in vari-
ous countries an equal familiarity with other quad.
rupeds, according to the habits, the taste, or the
caprice of different nations ; and he then concludes,
that the universal friendship of the man and the dog
must be the result of the laws of nature. With
singular propriety, therefore, has the name Canis
familiaris—domestic or familiar dog—been assign-
ed by Linnzeus to the species,

The dogs of the Esquimatx lead always a fa-
tiguing, and often a very painful life. They are

46 NATURAL HISTORY.

not, like the Siberian dogs (to which they bear a
considerable resemblance), turned out in the sum-
mer to seek their own sustenance: at that period
they are fat and vigorous; for they have abundance
of kaow, or the skin and part of the blubber of the
walrus.* But their feeding in winter is very pre-
carious. ‘Their masters have but little to spare ;
and the dogs become miserably thin, at a time when
the severest labour is imposed upon them. It is
not, therefore, surprising that the shouts and blows
of their drivers have no effect in preventing them
from rushing out of their road to pick up whatever
they can descry ; or that they are constantly creep-
ing into the huts to pilfer anything within their
reach: their chances of success are but small; for
the people within the huts are equally keen in the
protection of their stores, and they spend half their
time in shouting out the names of the intruders
(for the dogs have all names), and in driving them
forth by the most unmerciful blows. This is a
singular, but, from the difference of circumstances,
not unnatural contrast to the treatment of dogs
described in Homer. ‘The princes of the Trojan
war allowed their dogs to wait under their tables,
to gather up the remains of their feasts. In the
twenty-third book of the Iliad, it is mentioned that
Patroclus had no fewer than nine such humble re.
tainers. The same princes, too, as we learn in
the tenth book of the Odyssey, carried home to
their dogs the fragments which fell from the tables

* The attachment of these dogs to the taste and smell of fat -
is as remarkable as the passion of Cossacks for oil. At Chelsea
there are two domesticated Esquimaux dogs, that will stand,
hour after hour, in front of a candlemaker’s workshop, snuffing
the savoury effluvia of his melting tallow.

‘

THE DOG. 47

of their entertainers. Among these fragments
were the soft and fine parts of bread, called azo-
uaydadAtat, with which the guests wiped their fin.
gers when the meal was finished, and which were
always a perquisite to the dogs. In allusion, prob-
ably, to this custom, the woman of Canaan says,
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their
master’s table.”

The hunger which the Bsquiteiad dogs feel so
severely in winter is somewhat increased by the
temperature they live in. In cold climates, and in
temperate ones in cold weather, animal food is re-
quired in larger quantities than in warm weather
and in temperate regions. ‘The only mode which
the dogs have of assuaging or deceiving the calls
of hunger, is by the distension of the stomach with
any filth which they can find to swallow. The
wolves and reindeer of the polar countries, when
pressed by hunger in the winter, devourclay. The
Kamtschatkans sometimes distend their stomachs
with sawdust. Humboldt relates that the Oto-
macs, during the periodical inundation of the rivers
of South America, when the depth of the water
prevents their customary occupation of fishing,
appease their hunger, even for several months, by
swallowing a fine unctuous clay, slightly baked.
Many other instances of this nature are given in
Dr. Elliotson’s learned and amusing notes to his
edition of Blumenbach’s Physiology. The painful
‘sense of hunger is generally regarded as the effect
of the contraction of the stomach, which effect is
constantly increased by a draught of cold liquid.
Captain Parry mentions, that in “winter the Esqui-
maux dogs will not drink water unless it happen to

+

«

eee

48 NATURAL HISTORY.

be oily. They know by experience that their
cravings would be increased by this indulgence,
and they lick some clean snow as a substitute,
which produces a less contraction of the stomach
than water. Dogs, in general, can bear hunger
for a very long time without any serious injury,
having a supply of some substance for the disten-
sion of their stomachs. It is mentioned in the
Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences, that
a bitch, which had been shut up and forgotten in a
country house, was sustained for forty days without
any nourishment beyond the wool of a quilt, which
she had torn in pieces. A dog has been known to
live thirty-six days without food or substitute for
food. |

We have already noticed that the Esquimaux
dogs do not bark. This is a peculiarity of many
varieties of the dog, but very rarely of those which
are natives of temperate countries. Probably this_
is an effect of high as well as of low temperature.
Sonnini says, that the people of Upper Egypt have
a species of dog resembling the shepherd’s dog, —
with voices so weak that their barking can scarcely
be heard. Columbus observed, that the voices of
the dogs which he took to the West Indies became
feeble. In both cases the tropical climate probably
produced this result. The prophet Isaiah alludes
to this peculiarity in his denunciation of idle in-
structers : “ They are dumb dogs, and cannot bark.”

The inhabitants of Holland and the Netherlands
have long been accustomed to the use of dogs for ©
purposes of draught. Pennant mentions, that in
those countries they draw little carts to the herb-
markets. In London, within these few years, the

ee

THE DOG. 49

use of dogs in dragging light vehicles has become
very general; and though their strength is rarely
employed in combination, as is the case with
the Esquimaux sledge-dogs, their energy makes
them capable of moving very considerable weights.
_ There are many bakers in the more populous parts
~ of London ‘who have a travelling shop upon wheels,
drawn by one or two stout mastiffs or bulldogs.
But the venders of cat’s-meat appear to have de-

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animal power. ‘The passenger through the narrow
streets and lanes of London is often amused by |
the scenes between the consumers of the commodity
and those who bring it to the houses. At the
well-known cry of the dealer, the cats of a whole
district are in activity, anxiously peeping out of
the doors for the expected meal, and sometimes

fis,

|
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—-

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50 NATURAL HISTORY.

gested approaching the little cart, without ap-
prehension of their supposed enemy who draws it.

The dogs attached to these carts appear to have
no disposition to molest the impatient groups of
cats which gather aroundthem. ‘The habit of con-

- sidering dogs and cats as natural enemies has tend-

ed to the production of a great deal of cruelty. It —
is true that dogs will, by instinct, pursue anything
which flies from them ; and puppies will thus run

‘after, and frequently kill, chickens. But dogs, by

chastisement, may be made to comprehend that no.
thing domestic must be molested.

The Newfoundland dogs, one of the most active
and sagacious varieties, are employed in their na-
tive districts to draw carts and sledges laden with
wood and fish, and to perform a variety of useful
offices, in the place of the horse. In many of the
northern countries, the bold and powerful races of
dogs are thus rendered peculiarly valuable. A
century ago, nearly all the travelling intercourse
of Canada was carried on by dogs. The superi-
ority of the Newfoundland dogs in swimming is
well known: they are semi-webbed between the
toes, which mechanism of the foot is of the greatest
advantage to them; presenting, as it does, an ex-
tended surface to press away the water from be-
hind, and then collapsing when it is drawn forward
previous to taking the stroke. ‘The hereditary
habits of these dogs, too, eminently qualify them
for swimming or rowing through the water, as the

action is more correctly described by Sir Everard

Home. It is thus that we have the most abundant
instances of human life being saved by these gen- _
erous and courageous animals. All dogs, how-

fe

" THE DOG. 51

ever, can swim; although some dislike the water,
and take to it with difficulty at the bidding of their
masters. The bulldog would appear the least like-
ly to combat with a heavy sea, as the Newfound.
land dogs often do ; and yet the following circum-
stance is well authenticated: On board a ship,
which struck upon a rock near the shore during a
gale, there were three dogs, two of the Newfound-
land variety, and an English bulldog, rather small
in growth, but very firmly built and strong. It
was important to have a rope carried ashore ; and
as-no boat could live for an instant in the breakers
towards the land, it was thought that one of the
Newfoundland dogs might succeed; but he was
not able to struggle with the waves, and perished.
The other Nowfoundland dog, upon being thrown
overboard with the rope, shared a similar fate.
But the bulldog, though not habituated to the wa-
ter, swam triumphantly to land, and thus saved the
lives of the persons on board. Among them was
_ his master, a military officer, who still has the dog
in his possession. 7

The changes in the quantity and colour of their
clothing, which almost all polar animals undergo
with the change of the seasons, is one of the most
remarkable and beautiful provisions of nature.
The fur, or wool, or feathers, with which quadru-
peds and birds are covered, is regulated generally
as to its quality and quantity by the temperature
of the region which the animal inhabits. The
dogs of Guinea, the Indian sheep, and the African
ostrich, are so thinly clothed, that they may be con-
sidered almost naked. ‘The temperature of their
bodies is thus necessarily diminished in proportion

“»

52 NATURAL HISTORY .

to the heat of the climate in which they live. The
Icéland sheep and the Esquimaux dog, on the con-
trary, are covered with a warm coat, both of hair
and wool, which enables them to bear the most in-
tense cold without much inconvenience. Previous
to winter, the hair of all animals is increased in
quantity and length, and the more they are exposed
the greater is the increase. Horses and cows
housed during the winter, have short and thin hair
in comparison with those exposed to the weather,
whose coats become shaggy. The groom is aware
of this arrangement of nature, and he redoubles his
labour in winter to give his horse a fine coat, and
thus to render him unfit for exposure to the cold.
The agents of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who an-
nually transmit to Kurope many thousands of the
most valuable furs, will only purchase of the In-
dians, with whom they traffic, those which are ob-
tained during the winter. The furs of those ani-
mals of North America which are killed in the
summer are quite unfit for purposes of commerce,
and they are of an inferior quality early in the
winters of unusual mildness. The growth of the
hair is dependant upon the temperature of the at-
mosphere; and thus the skins of hares and rabbits
with us are seldom ripe in the fur, as it is called,
till frosty weather has set in. The moulting of
birds, which takes place previous to winter, after
their young are reared, is a similar provision of
nature. By the renewal of the feathers, a sufficient
covering is afforded to enable them to bear the ap-
proaching change of season.

The changes of colour in many of the polar ani.
mals, and in others with which we are more fa-

e

m THE DOG. 53

miliar, though an undisputed fact, is not generally
understood as proceedmg from the same principle
of adaptation to the change of season as the in-
crease in the quantity of their clothing. ‘The Al.
pine hare, which is found in Scotland, is in sum.
mer of a tawny gray ; in winter it becomes of a
snowy white. ‘The ermine, which is also found in
the British islands, has its summer coat of a red-
dish brown; in winter it affords the beautiful white
fur which is so generally known, and with which
the robes of the English judges are adorned. LEv-
ery one is aware that in summer a black hat pro-
duces a much stronger sense of heat to the wearer
than a white one. The same thing occurs to ani-
mals of a black and white colour. If they are
placed in a higher temperature than that of their
own bodies, the heat will enter the one that is black
with the greatest rapidity, and elevate its tempera-
ture very much above that of the other. When
these animals, on the contrary, are placed in a sit-
uation where the temperature is considerably lower
than that of their own bodies, the black animal will
give out its heat by radiation to every surrounding
object colder than itself much more quickly than the
white animal. The surface which reflects heat most
readily, as in objects of a white colour, suffers it to
escape but slowly by radiation; and it is for this
reason that the white animal has its temperature re-
duced most slowly in the winter.* The change of
colour in the clothing of some quadrupeds and birds

* See Fleming’s Philosophy of Zoology, vol. ii. The protec-
tion of the animal from pursuit is by some considered another
end answered by the colour resembling that of the surrounding

snow.
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54 NATURAL HISTORY.

exposed to severe cold, as well as the increase in
the quantity of their outward protection against its
effects, forms one of those beautiful provisions of
the Author of nature which we recognise in every
examination of his works, but which we sometimes
overlook in our hasty notice of ordinary appear-
ances, without regard to the causes from which
they spring.

Many of the dogs of the northern regions can
only be considered as half-domesticated. ‘The Es-
quimaux dogs, and those of the Laplanders, are in-
deed faithful to their masters, return caresses for
blows, and are, to a certain extent, obedient; but
even these rebel against authority, and fear no
chastisement when they desire to satisfy their vo-
racious appetites. ‘The probability is, that they
would be entirely obedient if they were regularly
fed. As man ina highly civilized state acquires
the greatest command over his instinctive powers,
so the inferior animals, and dogs in particular, par-
take of this effect of civilization. An English
household dog will enter a larder even when hun-
gry, and not touch the provisions which he finds
unguarded; the Esquimaux dog, on the contrary,
is always contending with the family of his master
for a share of their scanty fare. An experienced
pointer passes by the place from which he has seen
a covey spring without indulging the feelings
which must be aroused by the scent which the
birds have left behind; the Esquimaux dog often
drags away his sledge in the direction of a rein-
deer or a seal, quite uncontrollable by his surly
master. Perhaps the education of each variety
may have much to do with this. Those who have

*

THE DOG. 55

studied the training of sporting dogs have observed
that gentle chastisemenis, often repeated and mixed
with kindness, produce the most perfect obedience,
while hasty severity frightens the animal for the
moment, but leaves no permanent impression. The
feeding of a kennel of fox-hounds is one of the
most striking illustrations of the power of training
to produce complete obedience. ‘The energy and
even fierceness of these dogs cannot be overlooked ;
there is nothing slavish and crouching in their de-
meanour. ‘They are hungry, and they know they
are about to be fed; but they manifest no rebel-
lious impatience. The feeder stations himself at
the door which separates the outer kennel from the
feeding room. At his presence a cry of joy is set
up by the whole pack, but it is instantly silenced at
hiscommand. He calls “Juno;” Juno passes out :
“Ponto ;”? Ponto follows; and so on through the
pack, even if there be thirty couple. If a young
_ dog should attempt to go out of his order, he is
turned back; he recollects the punishment, and he
seldom again transgresses. ‘The pack has arrived
at this state of perfect discipline by gentle correc-
tion, and, what is more important, by a system of
mutual instruction, if we may venture so to ex-
press this particular force of example. |
The dogs of Kamtschatka, as described in Von
Langsdorff’s Travels, when, in summer, they are
not wanted to draw the sledges of the inhabitants,
are left to rove at large and find their own food.
They keep on the seashore or in the neighbour-
hood of rivers, lurking after fish, and standing in
the water up to their bellies : when they see a fish,
they snap at it with unerring aim. In the autumn

56 NATURAL HISTORY. ©

they return of their own accord to their particular
owners in the villages. Hunger may have some-
thing to do with this voluntary resignation of their
liberty after their absolute freedom; and the au-
thor from whom we gather these particulars attrib-
utes the circumstance wholly to hunger ; but it ap-
pears to us that habit contributes an equally pow-
erful motive, and that the two motives both oper-
ate. A herd of cows, that come of their own will
to the farmyard at milking time, from a distant
pasture, desire to be relieved of the burden of
their swollen udders ; and they know from habit,
and the example of other cows who have thus acted,
in what manner and at what period that relief
will be afforded them. Many of the inferior ani-
mals have a distinct knowledge of time. The sun
appears to regulate the motions of those which
leave their homes in the morning, to return at par-
ticular hours of the evening. The Kamtschatka
dogs are probably influenced in the autumnal return
to their homes by a change of temperature. But
in those animals possessing the readiest conceptions,
as in the case of dogs in a highly civilized country,
the exercise of this faculty is strikingly remarkable.
Mr. Southey, in his Omniana, relates two instances
of dogs that had acquired such a knowledge of time
as would enable them to count the days of the
week. He says, “ My grandfather had one which
trudged two miles every Saturday to cater for him-
self in the shambles. I know another more ex-
traordinary and well-authenticated example. A —
dog, which had belonged to an Irishman, and was
sold by him in England, would never touch a mor-
sel of food upon Friday.” A gentleman has men-

*

THE DOG. 57

‘tioned to us, that, when a boy, he had a dog which,
being in the habit of attending church regularly
with his father’s bailiff, in a parish some distance
from Edinburgh, whenever he was with the family
in Edinburgh would start off on a Saturday to the
bailiff’s house, that he might not lose his privilege
and would punctually return. The same faculty
of recollecting intervals of time exists, though in a
more limited extent, in the horse. We knewa
horse (and have witnessed the circumstance) which,
being accustomed to be employed once a week on
a journey with the newsman of a provincial papes
always stopped at the houses of the several cus-
tomers, although they were sixty or seventy in num-
ber. But, farther, there were two persons on the
route who took one paper between them, and each
claimed the privilege of having it first on the al-
ternate Sunday. ‘The horse soon became accus-
tomed to this regulation ; and, although the parties
lived two miles distant, he stopped once a fortnight
at the door of the half-customer at Thorpe, and
once a fortnight at that of the other half-customer
at Chertsey, and never did he forget this arrange-
ment, which lasted several years, or stop unneces-
sarily when he once thoroughly understood the rule.
The natural habits of the species, even in dogs,
are not entirely overcome by domestication. The
well-fed dog, however he may know from experi-
ence that he shall receive a regular meal from the
hand of his master, often hides his food although,
perhaps, he never returns to his concealed stores :
this is an hereditary habit, transmitted to him from
a distant period, when his species were dependant
upon chance for the supply of their necessities. ‘The

a a pp o-oo =

i ae

58 NATURAL HISTORY.

Australasian dog, which is taken from a country
imperfectly civilized, and which has, perhaps, lived
in packs, associated in the pursuit of the penguin
and the kangaroo, cannot readily put on the subor-
dination of the mastiff or the spaniel. Even among
the best disciplined domestic dogs of our own coun-
try, the ancient instinct, which renders them beasts
of prey, sometimes breaks out. We recollect
several instances within our knowledge of house-
dogs having taken, as the farmers expressed it, to
worrying sheep; they would do this slily, and
would sometimes effect the most lamentable de-
struction. There is no remedy short of the capi-
tal punishment of such offenders, for they can
never be broken of the habit when it has been once
indulged. |
Not only are natural habits transmitted especi-
ally to dogs by their parents, but even some of
their acquired qualities. ‘The pointer is of Spanish
origin; and those of the stanchest kind in this
country are crossed with the fox-dog, to increase
their speed. ‘The natural instinct of the pointer,
as seen at the present day in the true Spanish race,
is to wind game; to steal upon them by surprise ;
and then, pausing for an instant, to spring upon
them with an unerring aim derived from this pause.
The crossed breed is less disposed, by its original
nature, to stop at game than the Spanish progenitor.
But education has converted the rapid rest and
spring of the original Spanish pointer into the fixed
and deliberate rest of the stanch dog: as a writer
on this subject has quaintly but forcibly expressed
it, “this sort of semicolon in his proceedings man

- converts into a full stop.” The cultivated stanch-

THE DOG. 59

ness of the pointer is inherited by his puppy, which
may be seen earnestly standing at pigeons or spar-
rows in a farmyard: he inherits the acquired
faculty of his parent, and his master afterward
gives it a direction. ‘
There is a pair of very beautiful mastiffs from
Cuba in the garden of the Zoological Society.
During the summer they were chained to separate
_ kennels, as mastiffs usually are ; through the winter
they have been placed in a den, perfectly sheltered
from the weather. In their general form they very
much resemble the English mastiff, the Canis fa-
miliaris Anglicus of Desmarest, whose principal
characteristics are a very short head, similar, ina

great degree, to the head of the bulldog, the dis-

AK

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ity 7
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Hi ays
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Spanish Mastiffs from Cuba. |

tinctive mark of which is a flat forehead; the ears
pendant and never erect; the lips falling, covering

hie

60 NATURAL HISTORY.

the lower jaw; the extremity of the tail turned up-

ward; a fifth pis on the hind foot, more or less
developed ; the nostrils separated one from another
by a very deep furrow; the hair generally close
and short; the colour various. The Cuba mas-
tiffs above represented are of a rufous brown, ex-
tremely beautiful, with their muzzles approaching
to a jet black; they are tractable and gentle.
The bare mention of the dogs of South America
must call up some of the most painful recollections
in the history of the human race. ‘The dog was
entirely unknown to the inhabitants of the New
World before the period when it was introduced
there by the Europeans; if we except an ex-
tremely small species, called the Alco, which the
Peruvians are represented to have domesticated as
a sort of lapdog. The only description which we ~
have of this animal is in a work by Fernandez,
and the rude drawing which is there given of it en-
ables us to form no accurate notion of its peculiar
character. At the Island of St. Martha, Columbus
found, according to Herrera’s History of the Dis.
covery of America, “many dogs which did not
bark :” these are generally supposed to have been
a species of wolf. The horse, the ox tribe, and
the hog, were . equally unknown to the Americans
before the discovery by the Spaniards. The con-
querors introduced each’ species; and they multi-
plied so amazingly, that the horses, the horned cat-
tle, and the hogs overran the whole country, and
to this day are found on the continent of South —
America in numerous herds; the horses always
ready for the service of the natives, who are the
best riders in the world; and the bullocks con.

THE DOG. 61

stantly offering a supply of food, and so numerous,
that they are sometimes slaughtered for their hides
alone. The number of dogs is much lessened ;
but a century and a half ago, in Hispaniola (now
called Hayti), Cuba, and all the Caribbee Islands,
they were in such quantities, that they were occa-
sionally destroyed to prevent their ravages upon
the calves and foals of the wild cows and mares.
According to the relations of the American voy-
agers of the seventeenth century, these dogs hunted
in packs of fifty or sixty, and they would attack a
herd of wild boars without any fear. The late
bishop of Calcutta, Reginald Heber, in his Journal,
confirms a statement which used to be doubted as
to the wild dogs of India hunting ferocious beasts.
He states, upon the authority of the Khaysa peas-
ants, near the Chinese frontier, that a tiger is often
killed and torn to pieces by large packs of these
dogs, which give tongue, and possess a aed fine
scent.

The circumstances attending the introduction of
dogs into the South American con Miscnt and isl.
ands, and their subsequent wild state, are thus de-
scribed in a singular book, “The History of the
Bucaniers.” Me

“But here the curious reader may, perhaps, in-
quire how so many wild dogs came here. The
occasion was, the Spaniards having possessed these
isles, found them peopled with Indians, a barba-
rous people, sensual and brutish, hating all labour,
and only inclined to killing and making war against
their neighbours, not out of ambition, but only be-
cause they agreed not with themselves in some
common terms of —— ; and perceiving the

62 NATURAL HISTORY.

dominion of the Spaniards laid great restrictions
upon their lazy and brutish customs, they conceiv-
ed an irreconcilable hatred against them, but es-
pecially because they saw them take possession of
their kingdoms and dominions; hereupon they
made against them all the resistance they could, op-
posing everywhere their designs to the utmost;
and the Spaniards finding themselves cruelly hated
by the Indians, and nowhere secure from their
treacheries, resolved to extirpate and ruin them,
since they could neither tame them by civility nor
conquer them with the sword. But the Indians, it
being their custom to make their woods their chief
places of defence, at present made these their ref-
uge whenever they fled from the Spaniards; here.
upon, those first conquerors of the New World
made use of dogs to range and search the intrica-
test thickets of woods and forests, for those their
implacable and unconquerable enemies ; thus they
forced them to leave their old refuge, and submit
to the sword, seeing no milder usage would do it;
hereupon they killed some of them, and, quartering
their bodies, placed them in the highways, that oth-
ers might take warning from such a punishment:
but this severity proved of ill consequence ; for, in-
stead of frighting them and reducing them to ci-
vility, they conceived such horror of the Spaniards,
that they resolved to detest and fly their sight for
ever: hence the greatest part died in caves and
subterraneous places of woods and mountains, in
which places I myself have often seen great num.
bers of human bones. The Spaniards, finding no
more Indians to appear about the woods, turned
away a great number of dogs they had in their

aos

THE DOG. 63

houses, and they, finding no masters to keep them,
betook themselves to the woods and fields to hunt
for food to preserve their lives; thus, by degrees,
they became unacquainted with houses, and grew
wild. This is the truest account I can give of the
multitudes of wild dogs in these parts.”

This dreadful narrative is abundantly confirmed
even by the Spanish historians ; who seem, like the
bucanier from whom we have quoted this passage,
not to have had that natural horror of deeds of cru-
elty, with which the accounts of them must in-
spire us who look upon such things without passion
or partiality. Columbus was in many respects a
good and great man; and yet, when he found, upon
his return from Spain to Hispaniola, that the un.
fortunate people were in revolt against the oppres-
sions of his soldiers, he was determined to put them
to death, in the most cruel manner, for that resist-
ance to tyranny which was their natural right
and duty. He went forth against the wretched
people with his foot-soldiers and cavalry. The
historian Herrera adds, “ part of the force employ-
ed by Columbus on this occasion consisted of twen-
ty bloodhounds, which made great havoc among
the naked Indians.” Only one of the writers of
those times speaks of such cruelties as they deserve ;
and he was an extraordinary enthusiast, who spent
his whole life in the endeavour to mitigate the fury
of the conquerors. ‘The name of this benevolent
man was Bartholomew las Casas. Relating the
events which tock place in the island of Cuba, he
says, “In three or four months I saw more than
seven thousand children die of hunger, whose fa-
thers and mothers had been dragged away to work

64 NATURAL HISTORY.

in the mines. JI was witness, at the same time, of
other cruelties not less horrible. It was resolved
to march against the Indians who had fied to the
mountains. ‘They were chased, like wild beasts,
with the assistance of bloodhounds, who had been
trained to the thirst for human blood. Other
means were employed for their destruction, so that
before I had left the island, a little time after, it
had become almost entirely a desert.” And a des.
ert it has partly remained to this day. The coast,
which was most populous at the time when Colum.
bus first touched there, is that which extends west-
ward of the city of Trinidad, along the gulf of
Xagua. Mr. Irving, the historian of Columbus,
thus describes its present state: “ All is now silent
and deserted ; civilization, which has covered some
parts of Cuba with glittering cities, has rendered
this a solitude. ‘The whole race of Indians has
long since passed away, pining and perishing be-
neath the domination of the strangers, whom they
welcomed so joyfully to their shores.” We shud-
der; and yet this is only a page out of the great
book of human history, which records but little
else than evils committed upon mankind, under the
hateful names of conquest and glory. |
We could almost lose our love of dogs in thus
learning how they have been trained for the most
abominable purposes, did not our indignation more ©
properly attach to those who so trained them. But
the history of dogs will at once show us that their
sagacity, their quick scent, their courage, and their
perseverance, may be equally well trained for good
as for evil. It is delightful to turn from the blood.
hounds of the conquerors of America to the Alpine

THE DOG. 63.

spaniels of the monks of St. Bernard. ‘These won-
derful dogs have been usually called mastiffs, prob-
ably on account of their great strength; but they
strictly belong to the subdivision of spaniels, among
which are found the shepherd’s dog, the Esquimaux
dog, and the other varieties most distinguished for
intelligence and fidelity.

The convent of the Great St. Bernard is situated
near the top of the mountain known by that name,
near one of the most dangerous passages of the
Alps, between Switzerland and Savoy. In these
regions the traveller is often overtaken by the most
severe weather, even after days of cloudless beauty,
when glaciers glitter in the sunshine, and the pink
flowers of the rhododendron appear as if they were
never to be sullied by the tempest. But a storm
suddenly comes on; the roads are rendered impass-
able by drifts of snow: the avalanches, which are
huge loosened masses of snow or ice, are swept
into the valleys, carrying trees and crags of rocks
before them. ‘The hospitable monks, though their
revenue is scanty, open their doors to every stran-
ger who presents himself. ‘T'o be cold, to be weary,
to be benighted, constitute the title to their com.
fortable shelter, their cheerful meal, and their
agreeable converse. But their attention to the
distressed does not end here. ‘They devote them-
selves to the dangerous task of searching for those
unhappy person who may have been overtaken by
the coming storm, and would perish but for their
charitable succour. Most remarkably are they
assisted in these truly Christian offices. They
have a breed of noble dogs in their establishment,
whose extraordinary sagacity often enables them

2

66 NATURAL HISTORY.

to rescue the traveller from destruction. Be.
numbed with cold, weary in the search for a lost
track, his senses yielding to the stupifying influence
of frost, which betrays the exhausted sufferer into
a deep sleep, the unhappy man sinks upon the
ground, and the snowdrift covers him from human
sight. It is then that the keen scent and the ex-
quisite docility of these admirable dogs are called
into action. ‘Though the perishing man lie ten or
even twenty feet beneath the snow, the delicacy of
smell with which they can trace him offers a chance
of escape. ‘They scratch away the snow with their
feet; they set up a continued hoarse and solemn
bark, which brings the monks and labourers of the
convent to their assistance. ‘To provide for the
chance that the dogs, without human help, may
succeed in discovering the unfortunate traveller,
one of them has a flask of spirits round his neck,
to which the fainting man may apply for support ;
and another has a cloak to cover him. These
wonderful exertions are often successful; and even
where they fail of restoring him who has perished,
the dogs discover the body, so that it may be se-
cured for the recognition of friends; and such is
the effect of the temperature, that the dead features
generally preserve their firmness for the space of
two years. One of these noble creatures was deco-
rated with a medal, in commemoration of his hay.
ing saved the lives of twenty-two persons, who, but
for his sagacity, must have perished. Many tray-
ellers who have crossed the passage of St. Bernard
since the peace have seen this dog, and have heard,
around the blazing fire of the monks, the story of
his extraordinary career. He perished about the

THE DOG. 67

year 1816, in an attempt to convey a poor traveller
to his anxious family. ‘The Piedmontese courier
arrived at St. Bernard in a very stormy season,
labouring to make his way to the little village of
St. Pierre, in the valley beneath the mountain,
where his wife and children dwelt. It was in vain
that the monks attempted to check his resolution
to reach his family. They at last gave him two
guides, each of whom was accompanied by a dog,
of which one was the remarkable creature whose
services had been so valuable to mankind. De.
scending from the convent, they were in an instant
overwhelmed by two avalanches; and the same
common destruction awaited the family of the poor
courier, who were toiling up the mountain in the
hope to obtain some news of their expected friend.
They all perished.

A story is told of one of these dogs, which, hav-
ing found a child unhurt whose mother had been

RT

1}} THA im
il {thi Hs ot
carnal it

68 NATURAL HISTORY.

destroyed by an avalanche, induced the poor boy
to mount upon his back, and thus carried him to
the gate of the convent. ‘The subject is represented
in a French print.

In looking back upon the few out of the many
varieties of the dog which we have already noticed,
we cannot avoid observing the extraordinary modi-
fications of which this quadruped has become sus-
ceptible. These modifications are so extensive, and
have existed so long, that it is now impossible to
decide which is the original breed. Buffon at-
tempted a theory of this nature, but it is evidently
unsupported by facts. Almost every country in
the world possesses its different kind of dog, and in
each of these kinds there are essential differences
of character produced by education. The Esqui-
maux dog draws a sledge, the shepherd’s dog
guards a flock; the mastiff protects a house, a dog
very similar in nature worries a bull; the Spanish
bloodhound hunts the naked Indian to the death,
while the dog of St. Bernard rescues the perishing
man at the risk of his own life. _ The dog, certainly,
has the greatest sympathies with man of all the
race of quadrupeds; and the nearer an animal ap-
proaches us, and the more easily he comprehends
us, the more are we enabled to modify his nature
and form his character. What is true of a species
is also true of a class. The quadruped is more
easily modified—that is, the class is more suscepti-
ble of instruction—than the bird, the bird than the
insect, the insect than the fish. The difference be-
tween intelligence and instinct, the nice partition
which divides these qualities, has formed the subject

of infinite speculation. The qualities are certainly

a

THE DOG. 69

not one and the same, as some philosophers have
maintained. With regard to the different posses-
sion of the qualities, the animal kingdom has been
thus divided: 1. Animals endowed with intelligence
and instinct, comprising all the vertebrated division,
since they possess a spino-cerebral nervous appa-
ratus (the seat of intelligence), and a nervous sym-
pathizing or ganglionic system (the seat of instinct) ;
2. Animals endowed with instinct only, comprising
all the ¢nvertebrated division, since they only pos-
sess the ganglionic or sympathizing nervous sys-
tem among all the species with visible nerves.*
Of the vertebrated animals, those which most easily
acquire habits from man are quadrupeds ; and of
quadrupeds, those which are most easily modified
are the species which belong to those united in
groups, naturally by the social affection. The
farther we descend in the scale of existence, the
greater is the separation from man; till at last ar-—
riving at the vegetable, we find a living substance
capable of modification without any effort of its
own will; and thus, having only spontaneous incli-
nation for heat, and light, and moisture, undergo-
ing much greater changes from cultivation than
animals, however docile. With regard to those
animals in the highest scale next to man, the more
artificial are their habits, the more are they modi-
fied by the circumstances of their domestication.
On the contrary, the more natural their habits, the
fewer are the deviations from their specific charac-
ter. The Esquimaux dog and the Dingo differ
very slightly from the wolf, which probably is of

* See the article ‘‘L’Instinct,” in ‘“ Nouveau Dictionnaire
. WHistoire Naturelle,” 2d edit.

70 NATURAL HISTORY.

the same original family. The petted spaniel could
scarcely be recognised as belonging to the species.
The senses of the higher quadrupeds, such as the
dog and the horse, are the instruments by which
man employs them for his use ; and he renders those
senses more powerful, in proportion as he cultivates
the faculties by which the senses are disciplined.
Thus, the senses which are most called into ac-
tion in the dog are those of smell and hearing.
The compensation, if we may so express it, with
which Nature balances her gifts, is very remarkable,
The chamois, which dwells on the mountains, has a
very long sight; the rhinoceros, which inhabits the
marshes, sees very keenly for a short distance: —
the weaker animals, such as rabbits and hares, have
the most exquisite sense of hearing; the beasts of
i prey have piercing eyes, but their ears are dull.*
i The force of one sense generally compensates for
the weakness of another. ‘Thus, dogs have not a
| very powerful sight (with the exception of the grey-
hound, which does not smell keenly), but their smell,
and generally their hearing, are exquisite. It is
| the perfection of each of these senses that renders
dogs so valuable to man in procuring his food and

guarding his property.

Without attempting to explain the peculiar con-
struction of the organ of smell (which would pre-
suppose a knowledge of the meaning of anatomical

_ terms), it may be mentioned, that the nasal organs
| - (the nostrils) are most extensively evolved or un-
folded wherever the sense of smell is the most ex-
quisite. Blumenbach states, that in the head of a

__ * See “ Histoire des Meeurs et de I’Instinct des Animaux, par
‘J.J. Virey.” Paris, 1822. au i

_ THE DOG. 71

North American Indian—a leader of his nation, who
__-was executed at Philadelphia about fifty years ago

—the internal nostrils were found of a most extra-

ordinary size. ‘The wonderful acuteness of smell

possessed by these savages is recorded in all ac-

counts of their manners. It is well known that

the keenest-scented hounds have the largest nos-

trils. |
The comparative quickness of hearing in dogs
probably depends, in great measure, on the form of
the external ear. Shakspeare has described the
matchless hounds of Theseus as dogs whose:

‘‘ Heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew.”

This was one of the characteristics of the o/d Eng.
lish hound, whose hearing was very perfect, and
whose sense of smell, also, was the most exquisite
that can be imagined. M.Cabanis says, the ears
of hounds, and other animals designed to hear low
sounds (low, as opposed to loud), are either pendu-
lous or very moveable, to compensate for their dif.
ficulty in moving the head.

We have mentioned that these exquisite senses
are increased and called into action by discipline.
The fox-hound will distinguish the scent of the. fox
he is pursuing from that of another fox who crosses
his path; the spaniel and terrier will track their mas-
ters, by their scent, through a crowded city; the
watch-dog barks when no one else hears a footfall.
Why is this? These dogs have been accustomed,
partly by nature and partly by education, to regulate
their senses by the exercise of attention ; to condense
their faculties for the service in which they are en.
gaged; to direct their capabilities to the one object

de NATURAL HISTORY.

which is necessary to be attained. They are gen-
erally successful ; and their success offers a valu-
able example to our higher faculties.

‘Dogs are excellent judges of distance : they sel.
dom fail in attempting to leap a ditch or a gate.
We have seen a greyhound, in full chase of a hare
which ran through a ditch, throw himself over the
hedge to be ready for her as she passed out ; and
the maneuvre rarely failed of success. This must
be considered an effect of reasoning, at any rate ;
although we may not go quite so far as Ray, the
great English naturalist, who says that dogs judge
of distances by an innate operation of t gonometry.
Dr. Thomas Brown, one of the most beautiful, as
well as profound writers on Intellectual Philosophy,
considers the existence of reasoning among many
of the inferior animals to be as unquestionable as
the instincts that mingle with it. Montaigne, the
most accurate of observers, has recorded a singular
instance of their faculty of judging of space: “I am
| struck with admiration at the performance, which
is nevertheless very common, of those dogs that
) lead blind beggars in the country and in cities. I
f have taken notice how they have stopped at certain
. doors where they are wont to receive alms; how

they have avoided the encounter of coaches and

carts, even in cases where they have had sufficient

m to pass; and I have seen them, by the trench.
fa Walled town, forsake a plain and even path to
take a worse, only to keep their masters farther from
ditch. How could a man have made this dog
understand that it was his office to look to his mas-
ah safety only, and despise his own convenience
o serve him? And how did he acquire the

~~ a ores

THE DOG. | 73

knowledge, except by a process of reasoning, when
the path was broad enough for himself, that it was
not so for the blind man?’* How could a man
have made this dog understand? Here is the real
difficulty. Habit certainly does a great deal; but
then there must be a beginning of such experi-
ments.

In a work by Jean Faber (Exposition des Ani-
maux de la Nouvelle Espagne de Hernandez) there
is a very interesting account of the blind beggars
_ of Rome, who were led by their dogs from church
to church in that city, and even to places outside
of the city walls, such as the Basilica of St. Paul,
on the road to Ostia. How does the animal so
thoroughly comprehend where his master wishes to
go? - Dr. Gall says that dogs “learn to understand
not merely separate words or articulate sounds,
but whole sentences expressing many ideas.” Dr.
Elliotson, the learned translator of Blumenbach’s
Physiology, quotes the following passage from
Gall’s ‘Treatise on the Functions of the Brain,
without expressing any doubt of the circumstance :
“T have often spoken intentionally of objects which
might interest my dog, taking care not to mention
his name, or make any intonation or gesture which
might awaken his attention. He, however, show-
ed no less pleasure or sorrow, as it might be; and,
indeed, manifested by his behaviour that he had
perfectly understood the conversation which con-
cerned him. I had taken a bitch from Vienna to
Paris; in a very short time she comprehended
French as well as German, of which [ satisfied
myself by repeating before her whole sentences in

* Montaigne’s a by Cotton.

which is very remarkable. between
the shepherd’s dog and ferrier, a ‘great favourite

a farmhouse, was standing by 4 his mistr ress
| was washing some of her children. Upon asking
Hos a boy whom she had just dressed to bring his sis-

: ter’s clothes from the next room, he pouted and _
hesitated. “Oh, then,” said the mother, “ Mungo
) will fetch them.” She said this by way of reproach

4 to the boy, for Mungo had not been accustomed to
: fetch and carry. But Mungo was intelligent and

obedient; and, without farther command, he brought
‘ the child’s frock to his astonished mistress. This
iM was an effort of imagination in Mungo, which dogs

often observed, doubtless, the business of dressing
the children ; and the instant he was appealed to,
he imagined what his mistress wanted. Every one
knows the anxiety which dogs feel to go out with
their masters, if they have been accustomed so to
do. A dog will often anticipate the journey of his
owner ; and, guessing the road he means to take,
steal away to a considerable distance on that road
to avoid being detained at home. We have re-
peatedly seen this circumstance. It is distinctly
an effort of the imagination, if, indeed, it be not an
inference of reasoning.

The shying of horses has been considered by
some as a peculiar defect of sight; at any rate, it
is an effect of some false terror. Dogs fill their
imagination with vain fears in the same manner.
_ We have been informed by an intelligent sports.

man, that, returning home in the dusk with his

| certainly possess in a considerable degree. Hehad

THE DOG. oy 73

a p inter, the dog all at once skulked Rohit him,

and refused to advance, in spite of his master’s
threats. Upon looking towards the horizon before
him, the sportsman descried what he at first took
for a tall ma n, with a broad hat, extended arms,
and a body as thin asa lath. This object, which
produced the dog’s alarm, was a gigantic thistle,
which the gray of the twilight had magnified into
fearful dimensions. ‘The credulous once believed
that dogs and horses could see spirits, by their of-
ten starting without any apparent cause. Such in-
stances as this of the thistle might have given rise
to the superstition.

Linnzus has made it a characteristic of dogs that
“they bark at beggars :” but beggars are ragged,
and sometimes have that look of wildness which
squalid poverty produces; and then the imagina-
tion of the dog Sees, in the poor mendicant, a rob-
ber of his master’s house, or one who will be cruel
to himself; and he expresses his own fears bya bark.
A dog is thus valuable for watching property, in
proportion to the ease with which he is alarmed.
One of the greatest terrors of a domesticated dog
is a naked man, because this is an unaccustomed
object. The sense of fear is said to be so great in
this situation, that the fiercest dog will not even
bark.- A tanyard at Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire,
was a few years ago extensively robbed by a thief,
who took this method to overcome the courage of
a powerful Newfoundland dog, who had long pro.
tected a considerable property. The terror which
the dog felt at the naked thief was altogether ima.
ginary ; for the naked man was less capable of re-
sisting the attack of the dog than if he had been

noseaniaenes'aneane alll cenanasaaenaeal

_.who watches by his master’s grave, and is not

76 ‘ NATURAL HISTORY.

*
clothed. But then the dog had no support in his
experience. His memory of the past did not com
to the aid of that faculty which saw an unknown
danger in the future.
The faculties of quadrupeds, like those of men,
are, of course, mixed in their operation. The dog,

tempted away by the caresses of the living, employs —
both his memory and his imagination in this act of —
affection. In the year 1827, there was a dog con-
stantly to be seen in St. Bride’s defied Fleet-

street, which for two years had refused to leave
the place where his master was buried. He did
not appear miserable; he evidently recollected
their old companionship, and he imagined that their
friendship would again be renewed. The inhabi-
tants of the houses around the church daily fed the
poor creature, and the sexton built him a little ken
nel, But he never would quit the spat and thers
he died. ae

The instances of devoted affection of f dogs to |
their masters are too numerous and too wel
to require that they should be here repe
is a fortunate circumstance connected with this
natural attachment of dogs to mankind, that in
general they are only considered valuable during

their lives; and their value consists in the quali.
_ ties which have a tendency to make men. gentle
nd affectionate towards them in return. — But this

iprocal friendship is not universal. The na.
es on the coast of Guinea and those of the South
Sea Islands eat dog’s flesh; they are said to be
dog-butchers in China ; and in Finmark, and in
‘other parts of Lapland, dogs are bred, fattened, and
slaughtered for their hides.

-~

THE DOG. ie 17

The faculty by which animals can communicate

their ideas to each other is very striking; in dogs

it is particularly remarkable. There are many
curious anecdotes recorded illustrative of this fac.
ulty. iy

The following story, which illustrates in-a sin-

-_- gular manner the communication of ideas between
dogs, was told by a clergyman as an authentic
anecdote: A surgeon of Leeds, walking in the

suburbs of that town, found a little spaniel who had
been lamed. He carried the poor animal home,
bandaged up his leg, and, after two or three days,
turned him out. ‘The dog returned to the surgeon’s
house every morning till his leg was perfectly well.
At the end of several months the spaniel again pre.
sented himself, in company with another dog, which
had also been lamed; and he intimated, as well as
piteous and intelligent looks could intimate, that he
desired the same kind assistance to be rendered
to his friend as had been bestowed upon himself.
A similar circumstance is stated to have occurred
‘to Moraut, a celebrated French surgeon.

What is generally called the docility of dogs—
the faculty of being taught tricks contrary to their
natures, is curious, but far from pleasing: the per.
fection is generally attained by cruelty. It ismore
agreeable to witness a natural docility; such as
that of the shepherd’s dog, who learns to distinguish
every sheep of a large flock ; and who will drive
them through the crowded streets with a foresight
perfectly wonderful. Some of the finest dogs in
the world are those which watch the Merino sheep
upon the Spanish mountains. They wear large
collars with spikes, to protect them from the at-

ara”

| 78 _ NATURAL HISTORY.

, tacks of the wolves; and they conduct their flocks
with a gentleness which is only equalled by their
{ courage. When they return to the folds, the dogs
| os bring up the stragglers without violence; and the
|
|

man walks at their head in the true pastoral style so

beautifully described in the Psalms: “ The Lord is

my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me _

lie down in green pastures; he Jeadeth me beside __

the still waters.” aes
The dog, as well as most other animals, indicates _

his different feelings by different tones of his voice ;

and thus the shepherd’s dog has a command over

his flock without using positive violence. Their

tones are so marked that they are recognised as

expressive of anger or fear by otheranimals. The

horse knows from the bark of a dog when he may

expect an attack upon his heels. |
The practice of teaching dogs tricks is as oldas. __

the Romans. Montaigne has quoted from Plutarch

the following account of a wonderful dog of an-

tiquity: “ Plutarch says he saw a dog at Rome, at.

the theatre of Marcellus, which performed most ex-

J traordinary feats, taking his part in a farce which

was played before the Emperor Vespasian. Among

| other things, he counterfeited himself dead, after

i having feigned to eat a certain drug, by swallowing

a piece of bread. At first he began to tremble

and stagger, as if he were astonished; and at

length, stretching himself out stiff as if he had

been dead, he suffered himself to be drawn and
dragged from place to place, as it was his part to
ut afterward, when he knew it to be time, he
began first gently to stir, as if newly awaked out
of some profound sleep, and, lifting up his head,

=?

THE DOG. 19

looked about him after such a manner as aston-
ished all the spectators.”

We have alluded to those exhibitions of remarka
ble attachment between animals of opposite natures, bo
which are sometimes so interesting in menageries.
These attachments are more frequent with dogs than
_ with other animals, probably because they are more
capable of attachment. The friendship between
«dogs and horses is too common to attract notice ;
_but every now and then we hear of an attachment

where we might have expected an antipathy. Dr.
_ Fleming, in his interesting book, “'The Philosophy
of Zoology,” quotes from Montague’s supplement
to his Ornithological Dictionary the following ac-
count of a singular friendship which subsisted be-
tween a China goose and a pointer which had killed
the gander. “Ponto (for that was the dog’s name)
was most severely punished for the misdemeanour,
and had the dead bird tied to his neck. The soli-
tary goose became extremely distressed for the loss
of her partner and only companion ; and, probably,
having been attracted to the dog’s kennel by the
sight of her dead mate, she seemed determined to
persecute Ponto by her constant attendance and
continual vociferations; but, after a little time,a
strict amity and friendship subsisted between these
incongruous animals. ‘They fed out of the same
trough, lived under the same roof, and in the same
straw bed kept each other warm; and when the
dog was taken to the field, the inharmonious lam-
entations of the goose for the absence of her friend
were incessant.” yt
The stories of attachment between lions and dogs
are well authenticated; and in several instances

80 NATURAL HISTORY.

the stronger animal has afforded a protection to his
trembling victim which has ripened into friendship.
In a well-regulated travelling menagerie belonging
to a person named Atkins, we saw, in the autumn
of 1828, a spaniel-bitch affording sustenance to a
young tiger who was sick and not expected to live,

and whom she evidently tended with affectionate

solicitude. The following cut is a representation

of this singular pair. —

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N

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WYN

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we

; We cannot quit the subject of dogs without ad-

ve ing to that lamentable circumstance, their oc-

casional madness. ‘This disease is not common to
dogs in all climates. According to Mr. Barrow,
canine madness is unknown in South Africa, al-
though this assertion has been disproved within

a Ls

THE DOG. 81

these few years.* Other temporary diseases are
oftentimes mistaken for this fearful malady; and
we therefore subjoin the symptoms of hydrophobia,
as described by MM. Chaussier and Orfila, who
have written a scientific work on this disorder :
_ “A dog at the commencement of madness is sick,
languishing, and more dull than usual. He seeks
obscurity, remains in a corner, does not bark, but.
srowls continually at strangers, and, without any
apparent cause, refuses to eat or drink. His gait
is unsteady, nearly resembling that of a man almost
asleep. At the end of three or four days he aban-
dons his dwelling, roving continually in every di-
rection: he walks or runs as if tipsy, and frequent-
ly falls. His hair is bristled up; his eyes haggard,
fixed, and sparkling; his head hangs down; his
m outh i is open and full of frothy slaver ; his tongue
hangs out; and his tail between his legs. He has
_ for the most part, but not always, a horror of wa-
ter, the sight of which seems generally to redouble
his sufferings. He experiences from time to time
transports of fury, and endeavours to bite every
object which presents itself, not even excepting his
master, whom, indeed, he begins not to recognise.
Light and lively colours greatly increase his rage.
_ At the end of thirty or thirty-six hours he dies of
convulsions.” It has also been stated as addition-
al symptoms of canine madness, that the animal, if
bitten, is at first incessantly employed in scratch.
ing or gnawing the wound; that the eye becomes
bloodshotten, accompanied with a slight squinting ;
that sometimes a depraved appetite exists, shavings,

of

* A case of hydrophobia is recorded by Dr. Wentworth in
the Cape Town Gazette.

75

* (32 NATURAL HISTORY.

straw, thread, hair, &c., having been found in the
stomach on dissection; and also that in the dog
there is no dread of water, as he frequently endeav-
ours to drink, but is unable to swallow in conse-
quence of a paralysis of the muscles of the throat.
The disorder, however, is yet but very imperfect-
ly understood, and there are many conflicting os
ions on the subject. To observe and ——
is the surest mode of increasing our kno edge of
the subject, and may, perhaps. eventually lead to the
| discovery of an antidote or a preventive of this ter-
| rible malady. At present, after various remedies
have been tried in vain, it seems agreed that cut-
ting or burning out the bitten part is the _ one
| to be relied on.

i

{ The domestic dog is scientifically distinguished

' from the other varieties of the species Canis by
having its tail curved upward. Whenever the
‘ is white on any part of the tail of the apa
i dog, the tp is invariably white.

uf The dog, whelped with his eyes closed, opens
i them on the tenth or twelfthday. His teeth begin
i to change in the fourth month; His growth ter-
minates at two years, and he is old at five. His
life rarely exceeds twenty years. The female goes
with young sixty-three days.

sa
oe
THE WOLF. 83
CHAPTER IV.
THE WOLF, THE JACKAL, AND THE FOX.
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The Wolf, PENNANT Canis Lupus, LINN us.

In the garden of the Zoological Society there
are three young wolves, a pair of which came from
Normandy. ‘The height of the specimen from
which the above representation was taken was
twenty-six inches in September, 1828. ‘These an.
imals are here confined in a manner which enables
the observer to judge better of their habits than in
the ordinary dens of the menageries. They have
a roomy kennel to feed and sleep in; anda sort of
outer cage, made of strong bars of iron rising from
the ground, and forming an arch, sufficiently large
to enable them to chase each other about with con-

rm

84 NATURAL HISTORY. ee.

siderable freedom: their play is, however, ex-
tremely rough, and they often bite with great vi-
olence. Upon the whole, they appear good-tem-
pered. We observed a gentleman somewhat im-
prudently thrust his hand into the cage, upon which
they all licked it, fawning like dogs.

The essential character of the common wolf con-
sists in a straight tail; the hide of a grayish yel-
low, with a black oblique stripe on the fore-legs of
those which are full grown; the eyes oblique. The
average height of the wolf is about two feet six
inches before, and two feet four inches behind ;
and the length of the body, from the tip of the muz.-
zle to the beginning of the tail, three feet eight
inches. -The cubs of the wolf are born with their
eyes shut; the female goes with young sixty-three
days, and has eight or nine at a litter, in these
respects exactly resembling the dog.* ‘The average
duration of their life is from fifteen to twenty years. ©

The gentleness of wolves in confinement seldom
continues after they are full grown; they generally
appear to acquire a fear instead of a love of man,
which manifests itself in a morose and vindictive
impatience. ‘The cowardly ferocity of their natures
is with difficulty restrained by discipline; they are
not to be trusted. And yet there are instances of
wolves having been domesticated to such an extent
as to exhibit the greatest attachment to man; as
great as can be shown byadog. M. F. Cuvier
gives a very interesting account of a tame wolf,
which had all the obedience towards, and affection

* The period of gestation in the wolf is inaccurately stated
in Goldsmith’s “ Animated Nature ;” and from the s sed differ-
ence in this particular between the dog and the wolf, an infer-
ence is drawn that they are essentially a different species.

i THE WOLF. 85

for, his master that the most sagacious and gentle
of domestic dogs could possibly evince. He was
brought up in the same manner asa puppy, and
continued with his original owner till he was full
srown. He was then presented to the menagerie
at Paris. For many weeks he was quite disconso-
late at the separation from his master, who had
been obliged to travel; he would scarcely take any
food, and was indifferent to hiskeepers. At length
he became attached to those about him, and he
seemed to have forgotten his old affections. His
master returned after an absence of eighteen
months; the wolf heard his voice amid the crowd
in the gardens of the menagerie, and, being set at
liberty, displayed the most violent joy. Again was
he separated from his friend, and again was his
grief as extreme as on the first occasion. After
three years’ absence, his master once more returned.
Tt was evening, and the wolf’s den was shut up
from any external observation; yet the instant the
man’s voice was heard, the faithful animal set up
the most anxious cries; and the door of his cage
being opened, he rushed towards his friend, leaped
upon his shoulders, licked his face, and threatened
to bite his keepers when they attempted to separate
them. When the man left him, he fell sick, and
refused all food ; and from the time of his recovery,
which was long very doubtful, it was always dan-
gerous for a stranger to approach him. He ap-
peared as if he scorned any new friendships.

This is a very remarkable, and, as far as we
know, a solitary instance of the wolf possessing the
generous, constant, unshaken attachment of the dog
to any individual of the “am species. And yet

86 _ NATURAL HISTORY. *

the paucity of these instances may be attributed to
our imperfect knowledge of the history of the do.
mestication of the dog tribe. In the individual] ani-
mal described by M.-F. Cuvier, the progress was
very clear from a state of savage fierceness to a
state of docility and extraordinary sensibility. This
wolf was taken young; brought up with human
beings; cherished by one in particular; never suf-
fered to have his ferocity excited by a want of
food; and supplied with every necessary, as well
as caressed, by the person with whom he had
especially become familiar. It is very rarely that
such an experiment can be tried; for the inhabi-
tants of Europe, for the last thousand years at least,
have been labouring with unceasing anxiety to ex.
tirpate the whole race of wolves. The Esquimaux
dogs, which we have described, are probably wolves
in a state of domestication ; but neither the date of
their domestication, nor the manner in which it has
been effected, could be satisfactorily determined,
even if the fact of the identity of the species were
completely established. That there is an essential
difference in the characters, though little or none
in the physical structures of wolves, properly so
called, and of dogs in the wildest state (that is, in
the state in which they most nearly resemble
wolves), is beyond a doubt. They are natural
foes: the Esquimaux dogs set up a fearful howl at
the approach of a wolf to their huts; and yet, in
their outward appearance, these animals are ex-
ceedingly alike. Captain Parry, in the Journal of
his Second Voyage, says, “a flock of thirteen
wolves, the first yet seen, crossed the ice in the
bay from the direction of the huts, and passed near

THE WOLF. 87

the ships. These animals, as we afterward learned

had accompanied, or closely followed the Esqui

maux on their journey to the island the preceding
day ; and they proved. to us the most troublesome
part of their suite. They so much resemble the
' Esquimaux dogs, that, had it not been for some
doubt among the officers who had seen them
whether they were so or not, and the consequent
fear of doing these poor people an irreparable in-
jury, we might have killed most of them the same
evening, for they came boldly to look for food with-
in a few yards of the Fury, and remained there for
some time.” Again he says in his journal five
days after, “these animals were so hungry and
fearless as to take away some of the Esquimaux
dogs in asnow house near the Hecla’s stern, though
the men were at the time within a few yards of
them.” Thus we see that there is an essential
difference of character between the Esquimaux
dog and wolf, which has rendered the one the natu-
ral enemy of the other, although their physical re-
semblance be so close as to present no essential
variation to anordinary observer. ‘This difference
of character is probably to be found, in a great de-
gree, in the effect of hereditary habit. We have
other instances of the disposition which wolves
have to make the dog their prey. Captain Parry,
in a subsequent passage of the same journal, men-
tions that a Newfoundland dog, belonging to one of
the discovery ships, being enticed to play with some
wolves who were prowling upon the ice, would
have been carried off by them had not the sailors
goné in a body to his rescue. In Broke’s Travels
we find the following curious circumstances re-

i

88 NATURAL HISTORY.

corded as happening in the north of Sweden: “I
observed, on setting out from Sormjéle, the last post,
that the peasant who drove my sledge was armed
with a cutlass; and, on inquiring the reason, was
told that the day preceding, while he was passing in
his sledge the part of the forest we were then in,
he had encountered a wolf, which was so daring
that it actually sprung over the hinder part of the
sledge he was driving, and attempted to carry off
a small dog which was sitting behind him. | During
my journey from Tornea to Stockholm, I heard
everywhere of the ravages committed by wolves,
not upon the human species or the cattle, but
chiefly upon the peasants’ dogs, considerable num.
bers of which had been devoured. 1 was told that
these were the favourite prey of this animal; and
that, in order to seize upon them with the greater
ease, it puts itself into a crouching posture, and
begins to play several antic tricks to attract the
attention of the poor dog, which, caught by these
seeming demonstrations of friendship, and fancying
it to be one of his own species from the similarity,
advances towards it to join in the gambols, and is
carried off by its treacherousenemy. Several peas-
ants that I conversed with mentioned their having
been eyewitnesses of this circumstance.” Nor is
the animosity of the dog to the wolf less than that
of the wolf to the dog. Associated in packs and
encouraged by men, dogs will chase the wolf with

the most daring ardour, regardless of his greater

physical strength; and, probably, without the aid
of dogs, they would never have been exterminated.

The wolf is peculiarly an inhabitant of Europe,
and he still continues so in the more northern re-

THE WOLF. 89

gions, and in those countries where dense forests
are not yet cleared. They once abounded in Eng-
land; and it is manifest that the terror which
they produced was not a rare circumstance, but
spread itself throughout all the land, and became a
part of the habitual thoughts of the people. The
month which corresponds with our January was, at
one period, called, by the Anglo-Saxons “ Wolf-
monat ;” and the reason for this is thus explained
by an old writer on British antiquities. “The
moneth which we now call January they called
‘Wolf monat,’ to wit, Wolf moneth, because people
are wont always in that moneth to be more in dan-
ger to be devoured of wolves, than in any season
els of the yeare; for that, through the extremity
of cold-and snow, those ravenous creatures could
not find of other beasts sufficient to feed upon.’”*
The natural terror which the wolves inspired among
the scattered inhabitants of the half-cultivated lands
of England was increased by their habitual super-
stitions. The same author, in his chapter “on the
Antiquitie and Proprietie of the ancient English
tongue,” says, “ Were-wulf: this name remaineth
still known in the Teutonic, and is as much to say
as man-wolf, the Greek expressing the very like in
Lycanthropos. The were-wolves are certain sor-
cerers, who, having anointed their bodies with an
ointment which they make by the instinct of the
devil, and putting on a certain enchanted girdel, do
not only unto the view of others seem as wolves,
but to their own thinking have both the shape and

* Verstegan’s “ Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Anti-

quities concerning the most noble and renowned English nation.”
Antwerp, 1605,
H 2

90 NATURAL HISTORY.

nature of wolves, so long as they weare the said
girdel ; and they do. dispose themselves as very
wolves in wurrying and killing, and waste of bu-
man creatures.” ‘The Germans had a similar su-
perstition ; and as late as 1589, a man was execu-
ted in the Netherlands under the charge of being
a were-wulf. ‘This pretended sorcerer, assuming
one of the most formidable shapes of mischief, was

called, in France, loup-garou. It is said that the
wolf, when it has once tasted human flesh, gives it
the preference over all other animal food; and
from this cause it probably arose that, for many
centuries of ignorance, when the influence of evil
spirits was universally believed, and the powers of
witchcraft was not doubted even by the learned, a
raging wolf, devouring everything in his way—the
sheep in its fold and the child in its cottage bed,
and even digging up newly-buried bodies from their
graves—should be supposed to be possessed with
some demon more fearful than its own insatiate ap-
petites. It is to the terror, also, which the wolf
inspired, that we are to ascribe the fact of kings
and rulers, in a barbarous age, feeling proud of
bearing the name of this animal as an attribute of

courage and ferocity. Brute power was then con-

sidered the highest distinction of man; and the
sentiment was not mitigated by those refinements

of modern life which conceal, but do not destroy it.
We thus find among the Anglo-Saxon kings and

great men, AXthelwulf, the noble wolf; Berthwulf,

the illustrious wolf; Eadwulf, the prosperous wolf;

Ealdwulf, the old wolf.

In the southern and temperate countries of Eu-
rope wolves are now rarely found. In severe win-

THE WOLF. 91

ters they sometimes make their appearance in
France and Germany. In Spain, the dogs who
_ watch the flocks wear spiked collars, as we have
before mentioned, to protect them from the occa-
sional incursions of the enemy. We must refer to
the accounts of travellers in the northern paris of
Europe and of America for any notice of the ap-
pearance of these animals in considerable numbers.
Wolves are, in those northern regions, very formi-
dable creatures, sometimes measuring six feet from
the muzzle to the end of the tail.*

Their prevailing colour is light, with a silvery
black stripe extending from the upper part of the
neck along the back. Mr. Sabine considers it prob-
able, that the loss of colour in the white wolves,
in the vicinity of the Arctic Seas, is occasioned by
the severity of the winter seasons; though the
change does not occur,in all cases. Desmarest,
though he admits this change, notices the white
wolf as a variety belonging to the description of
animals called Addznoes.

The peculiar whiteness of the hair or feathers
to which albinoes are subject, and which occurs
not only in quadrupeds and birds, but in the human
race, is occasioned by a defect in the colouring mat-
ter of these coverings of the skin, and is always
connected with a defect in sight, which arises from
the deficiency in the eye of what is called the. mu-
cous pigment. Blumenbach thinks that this defi-
ciency is hereditary in some of the mammalia, so
as to form a constant breed of white animals, as
in the rabbit, mouse, and horse; and that, in the
same way, the ferret, whose white skin and red
glassy eyes are well known, is descended from the

* Broke’s Travels.

92 NATURAL HISTORY.

polecat.* The subject of albinoes is intimately con-
nected with some curious facts which have been
recently investigated ; and which completely prove
the intimate connexion between, or, rather, identity
of, that substance which gives colour to the skin
and hair, and that which regulates the ability of the
animal to endure a greater or less degree of light.

From a series of experiments instituted to ascer-
tain the power of the sun’s rays, it has been estab-
lished by Sir Everard Home, that although the ab-
solute heat, in consequence of the absorption of the
rays, is greater from a black surface, yet the power
of the rays to scorch the skin is thus destroyed ;
according to Sir Humphrey Davy, by being con-
verted into sensible heat by the absorption. It is
thus that the negro has a provision for the defence
of his skin while living within the tropics; and in
the same manner, his eye, which is exposed to strong
light, has the mucous pigment darker than that of
the European.t In all quadrupeds which look up-
ward, as the monkey; in birds exposed to the
sun’s rays; and in fishes which lie upon the surface
of the ocean, this pigment is dark. In ruminating
animals, which look downward, and in nocturnal
animals, such as the cat, it is light; in the owl, it is
entirely absent. In the Supplement recently pub-
lished to his Lectures on Comparative Anatomy,
Sir Everard Home has collected some farther
facts on this interesting subject. He says that the
“rete mucosum,’ a kind of pigment which lines the
cuticle upon the surface of the body, and consti-
tutes the tubular cavity that forms hair, is precise-

* Blumenbach’s Comparative Anatomy, translated by Law

rence and Coulson. ae
t Home’s Lectures on Comparative Anatomy vol li.

THE WOLF. 93

ly the same substance as that upon which the reti-
na of the eye is spread (which we have called the
mucous pigment); and thus, being acted upon by
the same circumstances, when the hair becomes
gray, the person can only see with a weak light.
Baron Larrey mentioned to Sir Everard Home the
‘case of a man who had been confined at Brest thir-
ty-three years in a subterraneous prison. During
the day, he was completely blind, and only saw ob-
jects in the dark. His hair was absolutely blanch-
ed; and when it first became white, the pigment of
his eyes had undergone the same change. With
regard to the subject which led us to these curious
facts—the white animals of the most northern cli-
mates—Sir Everard Home unhesitatingly says, that
the shedding of the hair and feathers in the Arctic
regions, during the six months in which they are
not visited by the sun, 7s accompanied by the absence
of the “nigrum pigmentum” (the black pigment),
by which the animals and birds are fitted to see
with the weak light afforded them.* With these
facts before us, it may reasonably be believed that
many of the white animals of the Arctic regions
are, during a portion of the year, when the cold is
intense and the days are dark, what are called Al-
binoes ; that is, that with the change of the colour
of their hair, the mucous pigment of the eye also
changes colour; or, in other words, that the black
pigment is absent when the hair periodically be.
comes white. We have already seen how this
whiteness of the fur enables the animal to bear the
diminished temperature, without such a diminution
of the warmth of his body as would deprive him
* Supplement to Lectures, vol. v., p. 282, 1828.

94 NATURAL HISTORY.

of his physical powers; and upon the same beau-
tiful principle of arrangement by an all-wise Proy-
idence, which so nicely adjusts the senses and facul-
ties of animals to the situations in which they are
placed, the deficiency of the black pigment of the
eye enables some quadrupeds to see distinctly in
the faint light of the long Arctic winter. Upon
this principle, M. Desmarest’s description of the
white wolf, “an animal affected with the albino dis.
ease,” is an incorrect one. He is an animal the
colour of whose fur, as well as the pigment of whose
eye, undergoes a change to fit him ror the very ex-
traordinary changes of heat and light he is expo-
sed to; and which change of the fur and the eye
prevents him utterly perishing during that inca-
pacity to procure his food which extreme cold and
darkness would otherwise bring upon him. It is
remarkable, that these extraordinary adaptations
of the body to climate are confined to the inferior
animals. Man is not affected by them to anything
like the same extent ; for the colour of the negro’s
skin is unvarying in certain latitudes, and the albi-
noes of the human race are so from the effect of
disease. We may conclude, from this circum.
stance, that man, in the cases of adaptation to cli-
mate, as in all other cases, is left to derive his pro-
tection against physical evils from the exercise of
his own reason. The poor Esquimaux, during
their intense winters, clothe themselves with thick
furs, shut themselves up in a snow hut (the warm.
est of coverings from the external air), make fires,
and obtain light from oil. -Man, therefore, has a
defence, in his superior intelligence, against the
rigours of climate, even in the most exposed situ.

THE WOLF. 95

ations. He. is left to the unaided care of this in-
telligence, without that special intervention of Proy-
idence, which makes such arrangements for the
preservation of the inferior animals as shall come
to the aid of their instinct, and stand in the place
of those comforts which may be obtained by the
higher faculties of the human race. Man, for in-
stance, is the only animal that can produce artifi-
cial light and heat. He makes a fire in the woods,
and the monkeys will warm themselves at it; but
no monkey ever yet succeeded in kindling a fire
himself. As man advances in civilization, these
broad distinctions may be overlooked in the elabo-
rate contrivances by which he heaps up every com-
fort and luxury around him; by manufactures and
sommerce ensuring the possession of them, in va-
rious degrees, to all the human race. But the abil-
ity to construct a steam-engine, and the knowledge
which shows how to kindle the fuel which sets that
machine in motion, are equally results of the supe-
rior intellect of man, as distinguished from the fac.
ulties of the creatures beneath him. ‘Consider
the lilies of the field how they grow ; they toil not,
neither do they spin.” ‘The lilies of the field de-
rive their exceeding beauty, without an effort, from
the hand of the God of Nature; but the same God
ordains the toiling and spinning for man, to enable
him to preserve that place in the creation to which
he is destined—the head of all beings which inhabit
this earth—by the constant and progressive exer-
cise of his reasoning faculties, and by the employ-
ment of that knowledge which, from the accumu.
lated experience of past generations, constitutes
the power of civilization.

“>

96 NATURAL HISTORY.

In the southern states of America, according to
Mr. Warden, the Black Wolf is found. A black
wolf was taken in the Missouri territory by a par-
ty engaged in Major Long’s expedition from Pitts-
burg to the Rocky Mountains; and Mr. Say, who
accompanied that expedition, has described it-un-
der the name of Canis nubilis, or Clouded Wolf.
In the Menagerie of the Tower of London there
is at present a pair of wolves, taken in America,
and presented by the Hudson’s Bay Company,
whose hair is of that mottled or clouded colour,
formed of various shades of black, gray, or white,
which determined Mr. Say in his choice of a name
for the variety.

S =

SA) Sy Lao yy

>

THE WOLF. 97

These animals are larger and stronger than the
common wolf; of a fierce aspect, but, in a consid.
erable degree, without that peculiar expression—
that sinister look of apprehension, united with fe-
rocity—which usually characterizes the wolf spe-
cies. ‘Their tail is shorter than that of the com-
mon wolf, and their ears are remarkably short.
These individual animals are extremely voracious ;
and their natural fierceness has not been in the
slightest degree changed by confinement. The
head of the American wolf, generally, is larger
than that of the European; the muzzle is rounder ;
and his expression has less of that character which
is expressed by the common word s/linking.

Of the habits of the wolves of America, in which
part of the world there are several varieties, we
have now very accurate descriptions by intelligent
and daring travellers. From those narratives we
may form some tolerable idea of the pest which
formerly existed in Enganld, before their extir-
pation. During the arduous journeys of Captain
Franklin to the shores of the Polar Sea, he and his
companions were often obliged to dispute their
scanty food with the prowling wolves of those in-
clement regions. On one occasion, when they had
captured a moose-deer and had buried a part of the
body, the wolves absolutely dug it out from their
very feet, and devoured it, while the weary men
were sleeping. On another occasion, when the
travellers had killed a deer, they saw, by the flashes
of the Aurora Borealis, eight wolves waiting around
for their share of the prey ; and the intense howling
of the ferocious animals, and the cracking of the
_ ice by which they were surrounded, prevented them

I

— NATURAL HISTORY.

from sleeping even if they had dared. But the
wolves were sometimes caterers for the hungry
wanderers in these dreary regions. When a group
of wolves and a flight of crows were discovered, the
travellers knew that there was a carcass to be divi-
ded ; and they sometimes succeeded in obtaining a
share of the prey, if it had been recently killed.
Even the wolves have a fear of man; and they
would fly before the little band without attempting
resistance. The following anecdote is full of in-
terest: “Dr. Richardson, having the first watch,
had gone to the summit of the hill, and remain-
ed seated, contemplating the river that washed the
precipice under his feet, long after dusk had hid-
den distant objects from his view. His thoughts
were, perhaps, far distant from the surrounding
scenery, when he was roused by an indistinct noise
behind him; and, on looking round, perceived | eat
nine white wolves had ranged themselves in form
of a crescent, and were advancing, apparently wit
the intention of driving him into the river. O
his rising up, they halted; and when he advanced,
they made way for his passage down to the tents.”
This circumstance happened when the weather was
sultry. The formation of a crescent is the mode
generally adopted by a pack of wolves to prevent
the escape of any animal which they chase.

The following passage, from the same interesting
work, shows the extreme cunning of the wolves in
the pursuit of a creature of superior speed: “So
much snow had fallen on the night of the 24th, that
the track we intended to follow was completely
covered ; and our march to-day was very fatiguing.
We passed the remains of two red deer, lying at the

THE WOLF. 99

bases of perpendicular cliffs, from the summits of
which they had probably been forced by the wolves.
These voracious animals, who are inferior in speed
to the moose or red deer, are said frequently to have
recourse to this expedient in places where extensive
fzains are bounded by precipitous cliffs. While the
deer are quietly grazing, the wolves assemble in
great numbers; and forming a crescent, creep slow-
ly towards the herd, so as not to alarm them much
at first; but when they perceive that they have fair-
ly hemmed i in the unsuspecting creatures, and cut
off their retreat across the plain, they move more
quickly, and with hideous yells terrify their prey,
and urge them to flight by the only open way, which
is towards the precipice ; appearing to know that,
when the herd is once at full speed, it is easily driv-
en over the cliff; the rearmost urging on those that
are before. The wolves then descend at their leis-
e and feast on the mangled carcasses.’

me of weaker animals, he is ever ninntink ap-
prehensive for his own safety. In North America,
a bladder hung upon a pole, and blown about by the
wind, will deter him from molesting the numerous
herds of buffaloes. He is in continual dread of
being entrapped to his destruction. He will always
attack a reindeer when loose ; but if the animal is
tied to a stake, he fears to approach, considering
that a pitfall is near, and that the deer is placed
there to entice him to it. The Esquimaux, how-
ever, often take him in a trap made of ice, at one
end of which is a door of the same abundant ma-
terial, fitted to slide up and down in a groove; to
the upper part of this door a line is attached, and,

:
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= et a ai

100 NATURAL HISTORY.

“passing over the roof, is let down into the trap at

the inner end, and there held by a peg of ice in the
ground. Over the peg the bait is fastened; and
the whole machinery is concealed by a false "roof.
Of course, when the bait is removed, the line slips
off the peg, and the door comes down. This con-
trivance is quite in character with the surrounding
scenery ; and thus the wolf is deceived, in spite of
his habitual caution. Two were taken at Winter
Island in this manner, at the time of Captain Parry’s
second voyage. ‘The Indians in the neighbourhood
of Lake Winnipic, which is the reservoir of several
large rivers, and discharges itself by the River Nel-
son into Hudson’s Bay, were, till a very recent
period, principally employed in trapping wolves.
They were accustomed to make tallow from their -
fat, and prepare their skins to exchange with the
traders from Montreal. The dealers in ite ASS
ciated into a company in Canada, exported to En
land in one year (1798) wolf-skins to the number
of three thousand eight hundred. As civilization

has advanced in these provinces, the Indians, and

the beasts of the forests and rivers, have been driven
farther and farther into the wilds onward to the
coldest regions. But the trade in furs of North
America is still very considerable, and is now prin-
cipally in the hands of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Some idea of the destruction of animal life, to pro.
vide for the comforts and luxuries of Europeans,
may be formed from the statement which we gather
in Captain Franklin’s Narrative of his Journey:

that, in 1822, the Hudson’s Bay Company imported
3000 skins of the black bear, 60,000 of the pine
marten, 1800 of the fisher (a species of sable), 4600

THE WOLF. 101

of the mink, 7300 of the otter, 8000 of the fox,
9000 of the Canadian lynx, 60,000 of the beaver,
150,000 of the musk rat; besides smaller numbers
of the skins of wolves, wolverines, badgers, and
racoons. — |

Amid this constant warfare of mankind against
the wolf, it is not surprising that the character of the
species should be that of ferocity, cunning, and sus-
picion; that they should be with difficulty tamed ;
and that the human race should be to them the ob.
ject of dread and of aversion. It is probably owing
to the influence of the same hereditary fear, that
both the male and female wolf are most remarkably
solicitous for the protection and defence of their
young. The female prepares a nest, or she bur-
rows (as isthe case with most of the American va-
rieties) in almost inaccessible situations : she lines
this retreat with moss and with her own hair.
She suckles her cubs for two months, during which
the he-wolf supplies her with food. When they
begin to eat, they are fed with half-digested meat,
which the parents themselves disgorge ; and till the
cubs are sufficiently grown to protect themselves—
that is, till they are six or eight months old—the
parents invariably watch over their safety. The fe-
male fox is distinguished in the same manner for
the care of her young. It is to this strong affec-
tion for her offspring, increasing doubtless with the
necessity for protection, that the race of wolves has
not long ago become extirpated, at least in Europe.
Were the young left without the aid of this extraor.
dinary parental care, they would have little chance of
escape from the indefatigable hostility of man. A
distinguished writer and naturalist of the last age

~

102 NATURAL HISTORY.

says, “There are no animals destitute of some
means to preserve themselves and their kind ; and
these means so effectual, that notwithstanding all
the endeavours and contrivances of man and beast
to destroy them, there is not to this day one species
lost of such as are mentioned in history.”* ‘This
noust be taken with a limitation to the recent races
cf animals, those “ mentioned in history ;” for the
researches of naturalists have discovered fossile re-

‘mains of animals differing from any which we at
present know. And yet it is by no means certain

that some of these animals do not even now exist,
although we are unacquainted with them.t The
kangaroo, and the ornithorhynchus, two of the most
extraordinary creatures of Australasia with which
we are now familiar, were unknown to Europeans
halfacentury ago. Large tracts of Africa are yet
unexplored ; and it is possible that the future en-
terprise of such travellers as those who have already
penetrated some distance into those regions, may be
successful in discovering either the abodes of civili-
zation, or, what is more probable, new varieties of
animal life unsubdued by man, and essentially dif-
fering from those of which the human race has al-
ready made a conquest. |

The female wolf goes with young sixty-three
days, producing from five to nine whelps at a litter,
whose eyes are not opened till about the twelfth
day, like the whelps of the dog. ‘The average du-
ration of the wolf’s life is from fifteen to twenty
years.

* Ray’s Wisdom of God, in the Works of the Creation.
¢ See Home, Comparative Anatomy, vol. iii., p. 180.

THE JACKAL. 103

LZ AZ ZG: hyp 4
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Canis aureus, LINN&us.—Le Chacal, FRED. CUVIER.

There is no essential difference in the jackal and
the dog; and in the principal point which deter.
mines the identity of a species—the power of con.
tinuing a mixed variety—the dog, the wolf, and the
jackal are entirely similar. The difference, there-
fore, which certainly exists in their characters,
must be found in hereditary habit, whether among
the domesticated or the wild varieties.

The jackal is found in Africa, from the Cape of
Good Hope to Barbary; in Syria, in Persia, and
in all Southern Asia. It is considered by the best

——— SO ——S Oo ee C

104 NATURAL HISTORY.

commentators, that the three hundred foxes to
whose tails Samson tied firebrands were jackals.
Their habit of assembling together in large troops,
so as to be taken in considerable numbers, justifies
this conclusion ; for the fox is a solitary animal.*
To the inhabitants of hot countries the jackal is of
the same service as the vulture and the hyena.
He does not require living prey to feed upon; but,
wherever there is an animal body in a state of de-
composition, his nose scents it at a great distance,
and the air is soon freed from the putrescence.
But the jackal is still a beast of prey; and the
association of the species in strong packs enables
them to hunt down the antelope and the sheep.
He has been popularly called “ the lion’s provider.”
The common notion that he is in confederacy with
the lion, for the chase of their mutual prey, is an
erroneous one. At the cry of the jackal, echoed
as it is by hundreds of similar voices through the
woods and arid plains, the lion, whose ear is dull,
rouses himself into action. He knows that some
unhappy wanderer from the herds has crossed the
path of the jackal, and he joins in the pursuit. Of
this nocturnal cry we have read the most fearful
accounts. ‘The chacal’s shriek’”’} has been often
described as more terrific than the howl of the hy.
gna or the roar of the tiger; and it probably is
most alarming, from its singular dreariness amid
the lonely regions in which it is heard. It is well
described in Captain Beechey’s account of his ex-
pedition to explore the Northern Coasts of Afri-

* See “Fragments, intended as ‘an Appendix to Calmet,” 2
vols. 4to, 1800. ,

¢ Leyden’s Poems.

THE JACKAL. 105

ca: “The cry of the jackal has something in it
rather appalling when heard for the first time at
night; and as they usually come in packs, the first
shriek which is uttered is always the signal for a
general chorus. We hardly know a sound which
partakes less of harmony than that which is at
present in question; and, indeed, the sudden burst
of the answering long-protracted scream, succeed.
ing immediately to the opening note, is scarcely

less impressive than the roll of the thunder-clap |
immediately after a flash of lightning. The effect —

of this music is very much increased when the first
note is heard in the distance (a circumstance
which often occurs), and the answering yell bursts
out from several points at once, within a few yards
or feet of the place where the auditors are sleeping.”

The difficulty of domesticating the jackal, if it
were desirable, would arise from two causes. The
one is the strong odour which he emits, as filthy as
that of the fox; and yet it is said that the skunk
(a species of civet) loses its offensive smell in cap-
tivity. The other cause is the extreme timidity of
the jackal at the sight of a stranger ; he flies when
he is approached, although he attempts no resist.
ance when touched. ‘This is, perhaps, a peculiar.
ity arising out of confinement ; for Captain Beech-
ey says that he has frequently gone close up with.
in a few yards of a jackal in the wild state before
he would turn to walk away.

en

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106_ NATURAL HISTORY.

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Canis decussatus, GEOFFROY.—Renard croissé, DESMAREST.

The Cross Fox, in the Gardens of the Zoological
Society, differs very little in shape from the com-
mon fox. The colour of his fur is a sort of gray,
resulting from the mixture of black and white hair ;
he has a black cross on his shoulders, from which
he derives hisname. ‘The muzzle, the lower parts |
of the body, and the feet, are black; the tail is ter-
minated with white. |

This species of fox is a native of North America ;
and in his habits he differs very little from the fox
of Europe. Whether found in the Old or New
World, the fox is the same wily and voracious an.

a THE FOX. ‘ie LOF
imal; greedily seizing upon birds and small quad.
rupeds, either in the woods or near the habitations
of man; burrowing with great ingenuity, so as to
elude observation, and providing for escape with
equal sagacity ; hunted by man; disliked and be-
trayed by most of those animals who have a dread
of his attacks ; and extremely difficult to be tamed,
even when caught very young. |

The fox, like the wolf, is the constant object of
persecution, from the ravages which he commits
upon the exposed property in the fields and habita-
tions of men. He has been a destroyer of vine-
yards from the earliest times; “'T'ake us the foxes,
the little foxes, that spoil the vines.”* He de-
vours honey; he sucks eggs; he carries off poul-
try; he kills the hare in her form, and the rabbit
in the warren. He is, therefore, universally hunt-
ed and destroyed. In England the breed is not
extinct, partly from the extreme prudence of the
animal, and partly because it is considered un-
sportsmanlike to kill a fox except in the chase.
Fox-hunting, perhaps, furnishes the best excuse for
the continuance of a custom which, although it has
been called an instinct of man, must certainly be
an instinct belonging to avery rude and early state
of society.

The fox may in some degree be considered a
nocturnal animal; for, in a strong light, the pupil
of the eye contracts, like that of the cat.

The female fox produces four or five whelps at
a litter, which arrive at maturity in about eighteen
months, and live, upon the average, thirteen or
fourteen years.

* Song of Solomon.

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‘408 NATURAL HISTORY. —
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*

Having thus noticed many interesting specimens,
and given some general particulars, of the family
of dogs, we subjoin their scientific character :

The group of carnivorous quadrupeds, known by
the name Canis, and which is found in all parts of
the habitable globe, excepting a few islands of the
Pacific Ocean, comprehends the dog, the wolf, the
jackal, and the fox.

The teeth of this group are thus arranged :

Incisors, £, Canine, 12+, Molar, §=4, Total, 42.
They have two tuberculous teeth behind each car-
nivorous one. Their teeth are equally fitted for
devouring animal and vegetable substances. .

The tongue is not rough, as in the cat, but per-
fectly smooth.

They walk upon the ground with their toes,
which have curved claws for scratching the earth.
These claws are not retractile, or capable of being
drawn back within a sheath. Each of the four
feet has five toes, four of which only touch the
ground. ‘The hind feet have generally four toes,
though in a few varieties a fifth is developed.

In the dog, the wolf, and the jackal, the pupils of
the eyes are round; in the fox, they are trans-
versely linear.

.™

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CHAPTER V.

THE HYENA.

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Reet an Po REET Y TEED,

Striped Hyena. Hyena vulgaris, Desmarest.—Canis Hyena,
LINNAUS.

OF this animal there are only two species now
known, the striped and the spotted. Desmarest
gives the height of the striped hyena, at the shoul-
ders, as nineteen inches. ‘The ordinary length of
the body, from the muzzle to the tail, is about three
feet three inches. The colour of the striped hyena
is a brownish gray, with transverse bands of dark
brown on the body, which stripes become oblique on
the flank and the legs. Te hide is composed of two

THE HYZENA. 109 :

110 NATURAL HISTORY.

sorts of hair; the fur or woo] in very small quan-
tity, and the ‘silky hair, long, stiff, and not very
thick, excepting on the limbs, where the hair is
short and close, and on the muzzle, which is quite
shaven. as well as the external face of the ears.
The hair upon the line of the back is much thicker
and stronger than on any other part, particularly
on the withers, forming a sort of mane, extending
from the nape of the neck to the beginning of the
tail, which is also covered with long hair. |
The striped hyena is a native of Barbary, Egypt,
Abyssinia, Nubia, Syria, and Persia. This spe-
cies was known to the ancients, and is described by
Aristotle with much correctness. Pliny, however,
and other writers on natural history, have left us
abundant proofs of the extert of human credulity,
when employed upon such objects as ferocious an-
imals, whose habits were imperfectly known, and
were calculated to produce terror and disgust.
The hyzna possesses great strength in the neck;
and for this reason Pliny and other ancient wri-
ters believed that his neck consisted of one bone,
without any joint. ‘The ancients considered also,
as may be seen by a passage in Lucan’s Pharsalia
(lib. vi., 672), that this neck without a joint was of
peculiar efficacy in magical i invocations. Shaw
tells us, in his travels, that the Arabs,
kill a hyzena, bury the head, lest it should be made —
the element of some charm against their safety and
happiness. It isin this way that superstitions ex-
tend themselves through the world, and endure for
many generations. The Greeks and Romans be-
lieved, too, of the hyeena, that x could change its
sex; that it imitated the human voice (the popular

THE HYZNA. 111

name of laughing hyena is, perhaps, derived from
this notion), and that it had the power of charming
the shepherds, so as to rivet them to the spot upon
which they were met by the quadruped, in the same
way that a serpent fascinates a bird. A somewhat
similar notion prevailed among the poets and natu-
ralists of antiquity with regard to the wolf; they
affirming that ifa man encountered a wolf, and the
wolf first fixed his eye upon him, he was rendered
incapable of speaking, and became permanently
dumb. ‘These stories, both of the hyena and the
wolf, are evidently exaggerations of the fear which
would naturally be produced by the sudden encoun-
ter with a ferocious and dangerous animal. Many
of the notions of antiquity, with regard to the struc-
ture and habits of animals, were equally irrational.
It was gravely maintained, for instance, that the
elephant had no joints, and, being unable to lie down,
slept leaning against a tree; that the badger had
the legs of one side shorter than those of the other ; ;
that the bear brought forth her cubs imperfectly
formed, and licked them into shape ; that deer lived
several hundred years ; that the chameleon derived
its support solely from the atmospheric air. ‘These,
and many other fancies, proceeded either from a
literal construction of metaphorical expressions, or
a complete. ignorance of the economy of nature,
with regard to the laws by which animal life is reg-
ulated. “There are no grotesques in nature.”
Such errors as these have long since been exploded,
and the cause of real knowledge has been, therefore,
greatly advanced by the substitution of the true for
the fabulous. The popular interest of natural his-
tory is not necessarily reduced by this separation of

112 NATURAL HISTORY.

fact from fiction: for the more we examine the op-
erations of nature, the more shall we be sensible
_ of the real wonders which they present ; but which,
' however extraordinary they may appear, are never -
_ inconsistent with the great principles of organiza-
tion, and are never calculated to present any ex-
ceptions to the beauty and harmony of that design |
by which every living thing is formed and sustained.

The qualities of the two sorts of hyzena are so
similar, that we may simplify our description of the
habits of each, by describing, at this point, the par-
ticular appearance of the spotted species.

The spotted hyzena is a native of Southern Af.
rica; and the species is found in large numbers
in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope ;
from this circumstance Desmarest named it. The
general shape of this hyzena is very similar to that
of the striped, though it is ordinarily sr
mane is remarkable, but not quite so full as in the
striped species. The general colour of the hide is
a dirty yellow, approaching to a blackish brown
on the belly and limbs, with spots also of a black-
ish brown, more or less deep, on a 1 parts of the
body, excepting the under part of the belly and of
the breast, the inner surface of the limbs, and the
head ; the extremity of the muzzle is bla
tail is brown, without spots. gs Si 7

The peculiar powers of the hyzna, arising out
of the extraordinary strength of his jaws and teeth,
admirably fit him for the purposes which he serves
in the economy of nature. An inhabitant of warm
countries, he principally derives his subsistence, in
common with the jackal and the vulture, from those

THE HYZENA. 113

: res Ss.

SS
AN aS Tee Nt,

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vo Ce

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a ‘Wy i
AN
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41) =. = , N aS =

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al Hy “i \ nt es \ AT aa \F NY
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Spotted Hyena. Canis crocuta, LInNUs. —Hyena Capensis
DESMAREST.

animal remains which, if unconsumed, would pro-
duce the most seriousinconvenience. All the nar.
ratives of residents in, or travellers through, South.
ern Africa, agree in their accounts of these facts.
Mr. Pringle, in the notes to his “ Ephemerides,”
says, “ There are several species of the vulture in
South Africa, but the most common is the large
light-coloured vultur percnopterus, one of the sa-
cred birds of the ancient Egyptians. These fowls
divide with the hyzenas the office of carrion-scav-
engers; and the promptitude with which they dis-
cover and devour every dead carcass is truly sur-
prising. They also instinctively follow any band
of hunters, or party of as travelling, especially in
2

ae

114 NATURAL HISTORY.

solitary places, wheeling in circles high in the air,
ready to pounce down upon any game that may be
shot and not instantly secured, or the carcass of any
x or Other animal that may perish on the road. I
ave seen a large ox ‘so dexterously handled by a
flock of these voracious fowls, that in the course of
three or four hours not a morsel, except the bones
and the skin (which they had contrived to disin-
carnate almost entire), remained for the hyzenas.
In a field of battle in South Africa, no one ever
buries the dead ; the birds and beasts of prey re-
lieve the living of that trouble. Even the bones,
except a few of the less manageable parts, find a
sepulchre in the voracious maw of the hyena.”
Mr. Burchell, speaking of the office of vultures in
hot regions, says, “ Vultures have been ordained
evidently to perform very necessary and useful du-
ties on the globe ; as, indeed, has every other an-
imated being, however purblind we may be in our
views of their utility; and we might almost ven-
ture to declare that those duties are the final cause
of their existence. To those who have had an op-
portunity of examining these birds, it need not. be
remarked how feud, the mee oo Ha is

ing away ac or putrescent ante matter, wh
might otherwise taint the air and produce infec-
tious disease.” The vulture is enabled to perform —
these duties, in countries of great extent and thinly
scattered population, principally from his extraor-
dinary powers of sight. The wonderful extent of
this bird’s eye is shown in the follow stance :
“Jn the year 1778, Mr. Baber and several other
5

‘%

ne ae 1H
ag i

THE HYZNA. 115 4

gentlemen were on a hunting party in the island
of Cossimbuzar, in Bengal, about fifteen miles north ;
of the city of Murshedabad. They killed a wild i
hog of uncommon size, and left it on the ground
near the tent. An hour after, walking near the F
spot where it lay, the sky perfectly clear, a dark
spot in the air at a great distance attracted their
attention. It appeared to increase in size, and
move directly towards them: as it advanced, it
proved to be a vulture flying in a direct line to the ‘
dead hog. In an hour, seventy others came in all
directions, which induced: Mr. Baber to remark, i
this cannot be smell.”* The faculty of smell of the i
hyena conducts him as certainly to his food as the
sight of the vulture. Major Denham tells us in
his Journal, “the hyenas came so close to the tents
last night, that a camel, which lay about a hundred
yards from the enclosure, was found nearly half eat- t
en. A lion first made a meal on the poor animal,
when the hyzenas came down upon what he had
left.” Mr. Burchell says, “A new species of an-
telope, which had been shot late on the preceding
evening, was fetched home ; but, during the night,
the hyzenas, or wolves as they are usually called
by the Boors and Hottentots, had devoured all the
flesh, leaving us only the head and hide.” These, -
and many more instances which we might select,

show us that in these regions, in the very hour |
when any quadruped falls, the sharp-scented hye-
nas immediately make their appearance, and rush

into the encampments of man for their share of the

prey. At the Cape, they formerly came down into

the town, unmolested by the inhabitants, to clear the
* Home, Comp. Anat.,-vol. iii., p. 216.

AL

116 NATURAL HISTORY.

shambles of their refuse. (The common notion that
they tear newly-buried bodies out of graves-is not
inconsistent with their extraordinary voracity and
the peculiar strength of their claws. It is well as-
oetined that hyenas devour the dead carcasses
of their own species.

But the depredations of the hyzna are not con-
fined to the remains of the dead. ‘There are peri-
ods when they become bold from extreme hunger,
and will carry off very large animals, and even hu-
man beings, with the most daring ferocity. Major
Denham says, “at this season of the year” (Au-
gust), “there are other reasons besides the falls of
rain which induce people to remain in their habi-
tations. When the great lake overflows the im-
mense district which, in the dry season, affords
cover and food, by its coarse grass and jungle, to
the numerous savage animals with which Bornou
abounds, they are driven from these wilds, and take
refuge in the standing corn, and sometimes in the
immediate neighbourhood of the towns. Elephants
had already been seen at Dowergoo, scarcely six
miles from Kouka; and a female slave, while she
was returning home from weeding the corn to
Kowa, not more than ten miles distant, had been
carried off by a lioness. ‘The hyzenas, which are
everywhere in legions, grew now so extremely rav-
enous, that a good large village, where I sometimes
procured a draught of sour milk on my duck-shoot-
ing excursions, had been attacked the night before
my last visit, the town absolutely carried by storm,
notwithstanding defences nearly six feet high of
branches of the prickly tulloh, and two donkeys,.
whose flesh these animals are particularly fond of,

THE HYZNA. 117

carried off, in spite of the efforts of the people. We
constantly heard them close to the walls of our
own town at nights ; and, on a gate being left partly
open, they would enter and carry off any unfortu-
nate animal that they could find in the streets.”

With this strong desire for food, approaching to
the boldness of the most desperate craving, the
hyena, although generally fearful of the presence
of man, is an object of natural terror to the African
traveller. Bruce relates, that one night in Maib-
sha, in Abyssinia, he heard a noise in his tent; and,
getting up from his bed, saw two large blue eyes
glaring upon him. It was a powerful hyzena, who
had been attracted to the tent by a quantity of can-
dles, which he had seized upon, and was bearing
off in his mouth. He had a desperate encounter
with the beast, but succeeded in killing him.

‘The hyzena has always been an object of aversion
to mankind: and this feeling has been kept up, not
only by the showman’s stories of “that cruel and
untameable beast, that never was yet tamed by
man,” but by writers of natural history, from the
days of Pliny to those of Goldsmith. ‘The latter
pleasant compiler tells us, “no words can give an
adequate idea of this animal’s figure, deformity, and
fierceness. More savage and untameable than any
other quadruped, it seems to be for ever in a state
of rage or rapacity.””’ With regard to its deform.
ity, we are rather of opinion with Sir Thomas
Brown, that “ there is a general beauty in the works
of God; and, therefore, no deformity in any kind of
species of creature whatsoever ;” and, with him, we
‘cannot tell by what logic we call a toad, a bear,
or an elephant ugly, they being created in those

:
‘.
7

t
5
4

118 NATURAL HISTORY.

outward shapes and figures which best express those
actions of their inward forms.”* That the hyena
can be tamed, and most completely and extensively
so, there can be no doubt. “The cadaverous cro-
cuta” (the spotted hyena), says Barrow, in his
Travels in Southern Africa, “has lately been do-
mesticated in the Snewberg, where it is now con-
sidered one of the best hunters after game, and as
faithful and diligent as any of the common sorts of
domestic dogs.” Bishop Heber saw a gentleman
in India, Mr. Traill, who had a hyzena. for several
years, which followed him about like a dog, and
fawned on those with whom he was acquainted ;
and the bishop mentions this as an instance of
“how much the poor hyzena is wronged when he is
described as untameable.” M. F. Cuvier notices an
animal of this species that had been taken young at
the Cape, and was tamed without difficulty. His
keepers had a complete command over his affec-
tions. He one day escaped from his cage, and qui-
etly walked into a cottage, where he was retaken
without offering any resistance. And yet the rage
of this animal was occasionally very great when
strangers approachedit. The fact is, that the hy-
zena is exceedingly impatient of confinement, and
feels a constant irritation at the constraint which, in
the den of a menagerie, is put upon his natural hab-
its. An individual at Exeter Change, some years -
ago, was so tame as to be allowed to walk about
the exhibition-room. He was afterward sold to a
person who permitted him to go out with him into
the fields, led bya string. After these indulgences,
he became the property of a travelling showman,
* Religio Medici, § 16.

THE HYENA. 119

who kept him constantly in a cage. From that
time his ferocity became quite alarming ; he would
allow no stranger to approach him, and he grad.
ually pined away anddied. This is one out of the
many examples of the miseries we inflict upon an-
imals through ignorance of their natural habits: and
the same ignorance perpetuates delusions, which
even men of talent, like Goldsmith, have adopted,
and which still, in the instance before us, leads many
to say, with him, “ though taken ever so young, the
hyena cannot be tamed.” It is very doubtful
whether any animal, however fierce, is incapable
of being subjected to man. Mr. Barrow procured
in Africa a young leopard, which he says “ became
instantly tame, and as playful as the domestic kit-
ten.” He adds, “most beasts of prey, if taken
young, may almost instantly be rendered tame.
The fierce lion or the tiger is sooner reconciled
toa state of domestication than the timid antelope.”
And this is evidently a most wise arrangement of
Providence, in order that the progress of civiliza-
tion, with the dominion which man has over the
beasts of the field, shall not necessarily extermi-
nate the races of the inferior animals. The fierce
buffalo of the African plains, by an intermixture
of breeds and by training, becomes the patient ox
of European communities ; the hyena assists the
colonists of the Cape in the business (for to them
it is a business) of the chase; the hunting leopard
renders the same service to the natives of Hindos-
tan; and the Esquimaux dog, as we have already
seen, is, in all probability, a wolf in a state of ser-
vitude.

120 NATURAL HISTORY.

-

The subject of hyzenas is intimately connected
with a most interesting branch of natural science,
which it would be wrong here to pass over; we
mean the discovery of large quantities of bones,
which must have belonged to this tribe at a very
distant period, in various parts of the European
Continent and in Great Britain. This fact, con-
nected with the discovery, from time to time, of
the bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopota-
mus, crocodile, and other animals, in considerable
quantities, is one of the most extraordinary circum.
stances in the history of the globe; and iavolves
a discussion, whether these bones have been brought
hither by some great convulsion of nature, such as
the deluge, or whether they belonged to animals
which were formerly inhabitants of the countries
where they are found.

Casting a general view over the animal and also
the vegetable kingdoms, as they at present exist,
we find that animals and plants are generally dis-
tributed over the earth in bands or parallel zones,
according to the degree of temperature which ac-
cords with their respective natures. On the tops
of mountains, where the air is cold, we find the
animals and plants which are natives of climates
near the poles; and in the plains, where the air is
mild and warm, we encounter species which are
somewhat similar to those of the countries near the
equator. Tournefort, a celebrated botanist, found
at the top of Mount Libanus the plants of Lapland ;
a little lower down, those of Sweden; still lower,
those of France; descending near to the base,

THE HYZENA. 121

those of Italy; and at the foot of the mountain,
those of Asia. In the same manner there are
zones of different temperature on the whole earth,
ascending from the equator as from the base of a
mountain ; and each plant or animal is fitted by
nature for a peculiar existence conformable to the
climate in which it is found. When, therefore, we
discover in England and in the northern parts of
Kurope the remains of animals which we know are
at present the inhabitants of tropical regions, we
are natually led to consider, either that the bones
have been swept hither from those regions, or that
some great change has taken place in our globe,
of which this change in the residence (called by
naturalists the habitat) of animals is the result.

Sir Humphrey Davy has shown that a very high
tempertaure was necessary to the production of
crystals and the waters contained in them; and it
is therefore considered by some geologists that
the surface of our globe has been gradually cooling,
particularly as experiment has determined that the
metals and waters met with at the greatest depth to
which man has penetrated are at present hotter than
the surface of the earth is at the equator. The
geologists conclude, therefore, that there was a time
when the surface of the earth was too hot for the
production of animals and vegetables ; that tropical
animals were its first living inhabitants; and that
there was a period when the climate of Europe was
adapted to such animals.

Collections of the bones of hyzenas have been
found in large quantities in Franconia, in the Hartz
Forest, in Westphalia, in Saxony, in Wirtemberg,
in Bavaria, and in France. But the most remark-

122 NATURAL HISTORY.

able discovery was that made by Professor Buck.
land, of Oxford, in a cave at Kirkdale, or Kirby
Moorside, Yorkshire, in the summer of 1822,
Bones of a similar nature, some in large and some
in smaller quantities, had previously been found in
different caverns in England.

The cave of Kirkdale is a natural fissure or cay-
ern, extending three hundred feet into the body of
the solid limestone rock, and varying from two to
five feet in height and breath. It was discovered
accidentally in the progress of working a stone
quarry, as the mouth was closed with rubbish. It
is situated on the slope of a hill, about one hundred
feet above the level of a small river. The bottom
of the cavern is nearly horizontal, and is entirely
covered, to the depth of about a foot, with a sedi.
ment of mud. The surface of this mud is, in some
parts, crusted over with limestone, formed by drop-
pings from the roof. At the bottom of this mud,
the original floor of the cave is covered with teeth
and fragments of bone of the following animals :
the hyzna, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippo-
potamus, the horse, the ox, two or three species of
deer, the bear, the fox, the water-rat, and several
birds.

The inference which is drawn by Professor Buck. |
land respecting these bones, is, that they were ac-
cumulated before the deluge in this cave or den, —
and that the black mud with which they are covered
over is the sediment left by the waters of the flood.
The effect of this mode of -preserving them has
been, that the bones are not at all mineralized, but
actually retain nearly the whole of their animal jelly.

The bones are, for the most part, broken and

THE HYZENA. 123

gnawed to pieces, and the teeth lie loose among the
fragments of the bones. Among these the teeth
of hyzenas are most abundant, the greater part of
which are worn down almost to the stumps, as if
with the operation of gnawing bones. Professor
Buckland considers that hyenas must have been
the antediluvian inhabitants of the den at Kirkdale,
and the other animals, whose bones are found, must
have been carried in for food by the hyenas, the
smaller animals, perhaps, entire, the large ones
piecemeal. Judging from the properties of the
remains found in the den, the ordinary food of
the hyenas seems to have been oxen, deer, and
water-rats; the bones of the larger animals are
more rare; and the fact of the bones of the hyena
being broken up equally with the. rest, renders it
probable that they devoured the dead carcasses of
their own species. Many of the bones bear the
impress of the canine fangs of the hyena. Some
of the bones and teeth appear to have undergone
various stages of decay by-lying in the bottom of
the den while it was inhabited ; but little or none
has taken place since the introduction of the earthy
sediment in which they are imbedded.

The discoverer of these remains contends, from
the evidence afforded by the interior of this den,
that all these animals whose bones are there found,
lived and died in its vicinity; and as the bones be.
Jong to the same species which occur in a fossil
state in the beds of gravel with which England
abounds, it follows that the period in which they
inhabited these regions was that immediately pre.
ceding the formation of these gravel-beds by some
transient and universal inundation, which has left

a

124 NATURAL HISTORY.

traces of its ravages over the surface of the whole
globe. Professor Buckland concludes that the ac-
curacy of the Mosaic records is thus pepe on 34
established in all essential particulars.

The Fossil (or extinct) Hyena, according to
Cuvier, was about a third larger than the striped
. Sle ; with the muzzle, in proportion, much
shorter. The teeth, as to form, resembled those of
the spotted species, but they were considerably
larger. ‘The powers of the animal, particularly in
its faculty of gnawing bones, were therefore great-
er than those of the existing races.

The division of carnivorous quadrupeds ¢alled
Hyzna is scientifically distinguished by having no
small or tuberculous teeth behind the carnivorous.
Its teeth are thus arranged : Tot

Incisors £, Canine 171, Molar 5-5, tal 34.
These teeth are particularly adapted for breaking
bones, from their thickness.

The head is of a middle size, with an elevated
forehead ; the jaws shorter than those of the dogs,
and longer than those of the cats; the tongue
rough ; the eyes large, with longitudinal pupils;
the ears long, pricked, easily moveable, very open,
and directed forward; the nostrils resemble those
of the dogs.

They are digitigrade, or walk on their toes;
their feet are terminated with four toes, of which
the claws, which are very strong, are not retractile;
the fore-legs appear more elevated than the hind.
Beneath the tail is a glandulous pouch.

Naturalists have not ascertained the period ‘of
gestation, and other circumstances, such as the

THE LION. 125

number of young at a litter, connected with the re.
production of the hyena; nor do we find their ay-
erage duration of life stated by any writer of au-
thority. | |

CHAPTER VI.

THE LION.

S\N
INI

a NA
y. WGN

Felis leo, LINN=us.—Le Lion, Burron.

THE most interesting object of a menagerie is
probably its lion; and there are few persons who

L 2

\

126 NATURAL HISTORY.

are not familiar with the general appearance of this
most powerful animal. ‘To behold, in perfect se-
curity, that creature.which is the terror of all trav-
ellers in the regions where he abounds; which is
said to be able to bear off a buffalo on his back,
and crush the scull of a horse bya single stroke of
his paw ; this is certainly gratifying to a reasona-

é curiosity. The appearance of dignified self-
possession which the lion displays when aterest ;
his general indifference to slight provocations ; his
haughty growl when he is roused by the importu-
nities of his keepers or the excitement of the mul-
titude ; his impatient roar when he is expecting his
daily meal, and his frightful avidity when he is at
length enabled to seize upon his allotted portion ;
these are traits of his character in confinement
which are familiar to almost every one. —

The ordinary length of the lion, from t Bead of
the muzzle to the insertion of the tail, is about six
feet, and the height above three feet. The uni-
formity of his colour is well known, being of a pale
tawny above, and somewhat lighter beneath; and
his enormous mane isa characteristic which no one
can forget. The long tuft of rather black hair which
terminates his tail may not have been so generally
observed ; but this is peculiar to hisspecies. The
pupils of his eyes are round. ‘The lioness differs
from the lion in the want of a mane, in the more
slender formation of her body, and in the compar-
ative smallness of her head.

To understand the natural habits of the lion, we
must not be satisfied to observe him in menageries,
where, ordinarily, his disposition is soon subjected
by that fear of man which constitutes a feature. of

THE LION. 127

his character. We may, indeed, observe the form
‘of this magnificent beast ; and may occasionally be
delighted by his gentleness and entire submission
to the commands of his capricious masters. But
we must compare our own impressions of his char-
acter with the accounts of intelligent travellers ; we
must examine the peculiar structure of his body,
as developed by skilful and patient anatomists ; and
we may then return to view the lion of the show-
man with correct notions of his physical powers, and
with unromantic estimates of his moral qualities.
It has been too much the fashion with writers on
natural history to have their antipathies and their

partialities towards the ferocious quadrupeds; and |

thus, as the hyena has been represented as com-
bining every disgusting and offensive habit, so has
the lion been painted as possessed of the most no-
ble and magnanimous affections. “The King of
the Beasts” is a name applied to him, with which
every one is familiar. In physical strength he is
indeed unequalled. He is ordained by nature to
live on animal food, and fitted for the destruction
of animal life by the most tremendous machinery
that could be organized for such a purpose, regu-
lated by a cunning peculiar to his species. But
when we investigate the modes in which he em-
ploys these powers, we may perhaps be inclined
to leave the stories of his generosity to the poets
and romance-writers, who (as well as the authors
of more sober rélations) have generally been too
much inclined to invest physical force with those
attributes of real courage and magnanimity which
are not always found in association with it.

To comprehend the habits of the lion, we must

i

128 NATURAL HISTORY.

follow with attention the narratives of those travel-
lers who have seen him in his native haunts. From
the Cape of Good Hope, for instance, an adventu-
rous naturalist sets forth to explore the immense
plains of the interior of Southern Africa. His jour-
ney is performed partly on foot and partly ina wag-
on drawn by eight or ten oxen. His escort consists

of a few sturdy Hottentots, accustomed to the coun-

try into which he desires to penetrate, excellent
marksmen, and expert in following up the track
of every wild or ferocious beast. Farther and far-
ther he rolls on from the abodes of civilization, and
soon finds himself surrounded by tribes of Bushmen
or Caffres, who live in a rude but contented man-
ner, depending for subsistence upon their flocks and
upon the chase, and knowing very few of those
agricultural arts by which their arid P ins might
be partially redeemed from sterility. At length
he reaches those parts where ferocious animals
abound ; and where the lion, particularly, is an ob-
ject of dread. Having passed the borders of Euro-
pean colonization, his fears are first excited by view-
ing the footmarks of the lion. His Hottentot guides
have their tales of terror ready for the traveller,
who beholds for the first time the impress of those
tremendous feet upon the sands of the plain which
he is to cross; and they are ready to show their
skill in tracking, if necessary, the prowling savage
to his lair. So nice is this faculty in a Hottentot,
of tracking footsteps, that Mr. Barrow tells us he
will distinguish the wolf from the domestic dog by
the largeness of the ball of the foot and the compar-
ative smallness of the toes; and will single out
among a thousand any of his companions’ feet.

THE LION. 129

This is an effect of education, an ability produced
by the constant exercise of a peculiar faculty, which
has been acquired by early training. It isthe same
ability by which a skilful shepherd is enabled to
know every individual sheep belonging to his flock ;
and its exercise in each case proceeds from that
habit of attention which enables the human mind
to attain excellence in every pursuit. But evena
Hottentot does not discover the footsteps of a lion
without fear. Mr. Burchell, with his man Gert,
was in search of a party who had killed a hippo-
potamus. ‘They were hurrying on through a wil-
low-grove, when the Hottentot suddenly stopped,
and cried out with some emotion, “ Look here, sir!”
Mr. Burchell continues: “I turned my eyes down-
ward, and saw the recent footmarks of a lion, which
had been to drink at the river apparently not more
than an hour before. ‘This gave a check to our
dialogue on the hippopotamus ; and, in a lower and

graver tone of voice, he talked now only of lions, .

and the danger of being alone in a place so cover-
ed with wood.” ‘That immediate danger passed
away, but new fears of the same nature were con.
stantly presenting themselves. Mr. Barrow says:
‘It seems to be a fact well established, that the lion
prefers the flesh of a Hottentot to any other crea-
ture ;’’ and the same writer states, in another place,
that this powerful and treacherous animal seldom
makes an open attack, but, like the rest of the feline
genus, lies in ambush till it can conveniently spring
upon its prey. The best security which man and
beast have against the attacks of the lion is found
in his indolence ; he requires the strong excitement
of hunger to be roused to a pursuit; but, when he

i — ce Cs ag.

130 NATURAL HISTORY.

is roused, his vaunted magnanimity is no protection,
even for asleeping foe, as the poets have pretended.

We wust, however, follow our African traveller
a little farther in his career of observation. A low-
ering evening comes on; thunder-clouds collect in
every quarter; and the night becomes extremely
dark. The most vivid flashes of lightning are in-

termingled with the heaviest torrents of rain. ‘The

cattle are restless ; and the Hottentots are prevent-
ed making their evening fire for the cookery of
their supper, and for defence against the beasts of
prey. On such nights as these the lion is particu-
larly active. The fury of the elements appears to
rouse him from his ordinary torpidity. He ad-
vances upon his prey with much less than his usual
caution; and he is not at once driven off by the
barking of dogs and the sound of muskets. The
oxen of the caravan, who appear to scent the dis-
tant approach of their terrible enemy, struggle to
break loose from their wagons to escape their dan-
ger by instant flight ; an escape which would prove
their destruction. It is only by keeping with man
that they are safe. The repeated discharge of fire-
arms has the remarkable effect not only of keeping
off the lion, but of abating the restlessness of the
cattle. They appear to feel that their enemy will
retreat when he hears this demonstration of the
powers of the only creature that is enabled, by supe- |
rior reason, to cope with him. Nights of such har-
assing watchfulness are not unfrequently experi-
enced by the African traveller.* UY

It is no uncommon thing in the plains of South.
ern Africa to encounter innumerable herds of wild

* See Burchel]’s Travels, vol, i., chapter xviii,

THE LION. i3t

animals, quietly grazing like tame cattle. Wher-
ever the quagga (a species of wild ass), the spring-
bok, and the hartebeest (the Dutch names for two
varieties of the antelope) are found, there will be
lions, numerous in proportion, for the destruction
of their prey. Of course those formidable beasts
can only exist where the means of their support are
to be procured. ‘They are destined to live on ani-
mal food; and, therefore, where there are flocks
and herds, whether in a wild or a domestic state,
there they will be also. Mr. Campbell states that
the quagga migrates in winter from the tropics to
the vicinity of the Malaleveen river; which, though
farther to the south, is reported to be considerably
warmer than within the tropics, when the sun has
retired tothe northern hemisphere. He saw bands
of two or three hundred quaggas, all travelling
southward. They are followed by lions, who
slaughter them night by night; and what the lions
leave of the carcasses of these unfortunate animals,
is devoured by the vultures and the Bushmen.
Even the buffalo, whose forehead, when he is of
mature age, is completely covered with-a rugged
mass of hornas hard as a rock, the fibres of whose
muscles are like so many bundles of cords, and
whose hide is little inferior in strength and thick.
ness to that of the rhinoceros, even he is not safe
from the attacks of the lion. “ He lies waiting for
him in ambush till a convenient opportunity offers
for springing upon the buffalo and fixing his fangs
in his throat; then sticking his paw into the ani-
mal’s face, he twists round the head and pins him
to the ground by the horns, holding him in that sit-
uation till he expires from loss of blood.”*
* Barrow vol. i.

132 NATURAL HISTORY.

It has been often stated by travellers in Africa, —
and the statement has been repeated by Mr. Prin-
gle, upon the authority of a chief of the Bechuanas,
that the lion, after he has made his fatal spring upon
the giraffe when he comes to drink at the pools, is
carried away for miles, fixed on the neck of that
fleet and powerful creature, before his victim sinks
under him.

To the traveller in Africa the lion is formidable
not at night only; he lies in his path, and is with
difficulty disturbed to allow a passage for his wag-
ons and cattle, even when the sun is shining with _
its utmost brilliancy ; nor he is roused from some
bushy place on the roadside by the indefatigable
dogs which always accompany a caravan. Mr.
Burchell has described with great spirit an encoun-
ter of this nature:

“The day was exceedingly pleasant, a not a
cloud was to be seen. Fora mile or two we trav-
elled along the bank of the river, which in this —
part abounded in tall mat-rushes. The dogs seem-
ed much to enjoy prowling about and examining
every bushy place, and at last met with some ob-
ject among the rushes which caused them to set up
a most vehement and determined barking. We
explored the spot with caution, as we suspected,
from the peculiar tone of their bark, that it was
what it proved to be, lions. Having encouraged
the dogs to drive them out, a task which they per-
formed with great willingness, we had a full view of
an enormous black-maned lion and a lioness.
The latter was seen only for a minute, as she made
her escape up the river, under concealment of the
rushes; but the lion came steadily forward and

THE LION: 133

~ stood still to look at us. At this moment we felt
our situation not free from danger, as the animal
seemed preparing to spring upon us, and we were
standing on the bank at the distance of only a few
yards from him, most of us being on foot and un.
armed, without any visible opportunity of escaping.
[had given up my horse to the hunters, and it was
useless to attempt avoiding him. I stood well upon
my guard, holding my pistols in my hand, with my
finger upon the trigger, and those who had mus.
kets kept themselves prepared in the same manner.
But at this instant the dogs boldly flew in between
us and the lion, and, surrounding him, kept him at
bay by their violent and resolute barking. The
courage of these faithful animals was most admira-
ble; they advanced up to the side of the huge
beast, and stood making the greatest clamour in
his face, without the least appearance of fear. The
lion, conscious of his strength, remained unmoved
at their noisy attempts, and kept his head turned
towards us. At one moment the dogs, perceiving
his eyes thus engaged, had advanced close to his
feet, and seemed as if they would actually seize
hold of him; but they paid dearly for their im-
prudence ; for, without discomposing the majestic
and steady attitude in which he stood fixed, he
merely moved his paw, and at the next instant I
beheld two lying dead. In doing this he made
so little exertion, that it was scarcely perceptible by
what means they had been killed. Of the time
which we had gained by the interference of the
dogs, not a moment was lost ; we fired upon him;
one of the balls went through his side just between
the short ribs, and the blood immediately began to
M

134 NATURAL HISTORY.

flow, but the animal still remained standing in the |
same position. We had now no doubt that he
would spring upon us ; every gun was instantly re-
loaded; but, happily, we were mistaken, and were
not sorry to see him move quietly away, though I
had hoped in a few moments to be able to take hold
of his paw without danger.

“This was considered by our party to be a lion
of the largest size, and seemed, as | measured him
by comparison with the dogs, to be, though less
bulky, as large as an ox. He was certainly as
long in body, though lower in stature ; and his co-
pious mane gave him a truly formidable appear-
ance. He was of that variety which the Hotten-
tots and: boors distinguish by the name of the
black lion, on account of the blacker colour of the
mane, and which is said to be always larger and
more dangerous than the other, which they call the

. pale lion (vaal leeuw). Of the courage of a lion

I have no very high opinion; but of his majestic air
and movements, as exhibited by this animal while
at liberty in his native plains, | can bear testimony.
Notwithstanding the pain of a wound, of which he
must soon afterward have died, he moved slowly
away with a steady and measured step.

“ At the time when men first adopted the lion as
the emblem of courage, it would seem that they re-
garded great size and strength as indicating it; but ©
they were greatly mistaken in the character they
have given to this indolent, skulking animal, and
have overlooked a much better example of true
courage, and of other virtues also, in the bold and
faithful dog.”

Mr. Burchell, as we may learn from the forego-

THE LION. 135 1
if
_

i ing extract, is not inclined to maintain the courage
of the African lion, whatever impression he may
have had of his extraordinary physical strength.
The natural habits of the lion are certainly those
of treachery; he is not disposed, under any cir- i
cumstances, to meet his prey face to face ; and he a
is particularly unwilling to encounter man when 4
he crosses him in the full blaze of day. The
inability of his eye (in common with most others of
the cat-tribe) to bear a strong light, may account iM
in a great degree for this circumstance, which has
probably brought upon him much of the reproach of 4
being a skulking, cowardly animal. But we ap- uy
prehend that there were periods in the history of |
African colonization when the lion was of a bolder |
nature in his encounters with mankind; that the
dread of firearms has become, in some degree, a |
habit of the species; and that he has sagacity
er hereditary instinct to know that a flash and
a loud sound is often followed by a speedy death
or a grievous injury. One of the most remarkable
examples of the audacity of a lion is to be found in
the Journal of a Settler at the Cape more than a
century ago. ‘The first settlement of the Dutch at
Cape Town was in the year 1652: the site which
they selected was on the southern edge of Table
Bay, and the number of the settlers amounted only to
a hundred persons. In half a century the colonists
had greatly increased, and had driven the native
Hottentots a considerable distance into the interior, oi
among dry and barren tracts. ‘This is the ordina- 4
ry course of colonization. In 1705, the land. |
drost,* Jos. Sterreberg Kupt, proceeded on a jour-

* A local magistrate.

bs

“?

136 NATURAL HISTORY.

ney into the country to procure some young oxen for —
the Dutch East India Company; and he has left a
very interesting journal of his expedition, which has
been translated from the original Dutch, and pub-
lished by the Rev. Dr. Philip, in his truly valuable
Researches in South America. The account which
the landdrost gives of the adventure of his compa-
ny with a lion is altogether so curious, that we ex-
tract it without abridgment: |

“ Our wagons, which were obliged to take a
circuitous route, arrived at last, and we pitched our
tent a musket-shot from the kraal; and, after having
arranged everything, went to rest, but were soon
disturbed: for, about midnight, the cattle and horses,
which were standing between the wagons, began
to start and run, and one of the drivers to shout,
on which every one ran out of the tent with his
gun. About thirty paces from the tent stood a lion,
which, on seeing us, walked very deliberately about
thirty paces farther, behind a small thornbush,
carrying something with him, which I took to be a
young ox. We fired more than sixty shots at that
bush, and pierced it stoutly, without perceiving any
movement. ‘The southeast wind blew strong, the
sky was clear, and the moon shone very bright, so
that we could perceive everything at that distance.
After the cattle had been quieted again, and I had
looked over everything, I missed the sentry from
before the tent, Jan Smit, from Antwerp, belonging
to the Groene Kloof. We called as loudly as pos-
sible, but in vain; nobody answered; from which I
concluded that the lion had carried him off. Three
or four men then advanced very cautiously to the
bush, which stood right opposite the door of the

THE LION. 137

tent, to see if they could discover anything of the
man, but returned helter skelter, for the lion, who
was there still, rose up and began to roar. ‘They
found there the musket of the sentry, which was
cocked, and also his cap and shoes.

“We fired again about a hundred shots at the
bush (which was sixty paces from the tent and only
thirty paces from the wagons, and at which we
were able to point as at a target) without perceiv-
ing anything of the lion, from which we concluded
that he was killed or had runaway. This induced
the marksman, Jan Stamansz, to go and see if he
was there still or not, taking with him a firebrand.
But as soon as he approached the bush, the lion
roared terribly and leaped at him, on which he threw
the firebrand at him; and the other people having
fired about ten shatay he retired directly to his for-
mer place behind that bush.

“The firebrand which he had thrown at the lion
had fallen in the midst of the bush, and, favoured
by the strong southeast wind, it began to burn with
a great flame, so that we could see very clearly
into and through it. We continued our firing into
it; the night passed away, and the day began to
break, which animated every one to aim at the lion,
because he could not go from thence without ex-
posing himself entirely, as the bush stood directly
against a steep kloof. Seven men, posted on the
farthest wagons, watched him to take aim at him
if he should come out.

“ At last, before it became quite light, he walked
up the hill with the man in his mouth, when about
forty shots were fired at him without hitting him,
although some were - near. Every time this

2

tes

138 NATURAL HISTORY.

happened he turned round towards the tent, and
came roaring towards us; and I am of opinion
that, if he had been hit, he would have rushed on
the people and the tent.

“ When it became broad daylight, we perceived,
by the blood and a piece of the clothes of the man,
that the lion had taken him away and carried him
with him. We also found behind the bush the
place where the lion had been keeping the man, and
it appeared impossible that no ball should have hit
him, as we found in that place several balls beaten -
flat. We concluded that he was wounded, and not
far from this. ‘The people therefore requested per-
mission to g0 i in search of the man’s corpse in order
to bury it, supposing that, by our continued firing,
the lion would not have had time to devour much
of it. I gave permission to some, on condition that
they should take a good party of armed Hottentots
with them, and made them promise that they would
not run into danger, but keep a good look-out, and
be circumspect. On this seven of them, assisted
by forty-three armed Hottentots, followed the track,
and found the lion about half a league farther on,
lying behind a little bush. On the shout of the Hot-
tentots, he sprang up and ran away, on which they
all pursued him. At last the beast turned round,
and rushed, roaring terribly, among the crowd.
The people, fatigued and out of breath with their
running, fired and missed him, on which he made
directly towards them. The captain, or chief head
of the kraal, here did a brave act in aid of two of
the people whom the lion attacked. The gun of
one of them missed fire, and the other missed his
aim, on which the captain threw himself between

THE LION. 189

the lion and the people so close, that the lion struck
his claws into the caross (mantle) of the Hottentot.
But he was too agile for him, doffed his caross, and
stabbed him with an assagai.* Instantly the other
Hottentots hastened on, and adorned him with their
assagais, so that he looked like a porcupine. Not-
withstanding this, he did not leave off roaring and
leaping, and bit off some of the assagais, till the
marksman Jan Stamansz fired a ball into his eye,
which made him turn over, and he was then shot
dead by the other people. He was a tremendously
large beast, and had but. a short time before carried
off a Hottentot from the kraal and devoured him.”

The lion is remarkable for dulness of the sense
of hearing, difficulty in being awakened, and the
want of presence of mind which he displays when
suddenly awakened. It is this peculiarity which
enables the Bushmen of Africa to keep the country
tolerably clear of lions, without encountering any
great danger in their exertions. Dr. Philip has
well described it: “ ‘The wolf and the tiger gener-
ally retire to the caverns and ravines of the mount-
ains, but the lion is most usually found in the open
plain, and in the neighbourhood of the flocks of ante-
lopes, which invariably seek the open country, and
which manifest a kind of instinctive aversion to pla-
ces in which their powerful adversary may spring
upon them suddenly and unexpectedly. It has been
remarked of the lion by the Bushmen, that he gener-
ally kills and devours his prey in the morning at sun-
rise, or at sunset. On this account, when they intend

* The generous bravery of this man towards strangers offers
a striking refutation of the calumnies against the Hottentot race,
which the Dutch colonists employed to defend their cruel and
treacherous persecutions,

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140 NATURAL HISTORY.

to kill lions, they generally notice where the spring-
bucks are grazing at the rising of the sun; and by ob-
serving, at the same time, if they appear frightened
and run off, they conclude that they have been attack-
ed by the lion. Marking accurately the spot where
the alarm took place, about eleven o’clock in the day,
when the sun is powerful, and the enemy they seek
is supposed to be fast asleep, they carefully examine
the ground, and, finding him ina state of unguarded
security, they lodge a poisoned arrow in his breast.
The moment the lion is thus struck, he springs from
his lair and bounds off as helpless as the stricken
deer. ‘The work is done; the arrow of death has
pierced his heart, without even breaking the slum-
bers of the lioness which may have been lying be-
side him; and the Bushman knows where, in the
course of a few hours, or even less time, he will
find him dead, or in the agonies of death.’’*

We have thus traced the African lion as he ap-
pears to the traveller in solitary districts of that im-
mense continent, and where the presence of man
may in some sort be considered an intrusion upon
his legitimate empire. But the lion does not con-
fine his range to the desert plains, trusting for a
supply of food to the herds of antelopes and wild
asses, which live far away from the abodes of man-
kind. In the country of the Namaaquas, where
there are numbers of Dutch settlers, he is often found
prowling around the herds of the colonists. Mr.
Barrow tells an interesting anecdote of the escape
of a Hottentot from a lion, which pursued him from
a pool of water where he was driving his cattle to
drink, to an aloe-tree, in which the man remained
for twenty-four hours, while the lion laid himself

* Philip’s South Africa, vol. ii.

THE LION. 141

down at the foot. ‘The perseverance of the beast
was at length worn out by his desire to drink ; and
in his temporal absence to satisfy his thirst, the
Hottentot fled to his home about a mile off. The
lion, however, returned to the aloe-tree, and tracked
the man within three hundred paces of his house.
Mr. Pringle, who had extraordinary opportunities
of observing the habits of the half-civilized natives
of Southern Africa, and of becoming acquainted
with the characteristics of the wild beasts with
which that part of the world abounds, has given us
a very good description of a lion-hunt, in which he
and several of his countrymen, all somewhat inex.
perienced i in such adventures, were engaged. Mr,
Pringle was a settler on the eastern frontier of the
Cape colony ; and in 1822 was residing on his farm,
or “location,” at Bavian’s River. We should de-
prive his account of a lion-hunt of its interest if we
attempted to give it in any other than his own words :
«“ One night a lion, that had previously purloined
a few sheep out of my kraal, came down and killed
my riding horse, about a hundred yards from the
door of my cabin. Knowing that the lion, when he
does not carry off his prey, usually conceals him.
self in the vicinity, and is very apt to be dangerous
by prowling about the place in search of more
game, I resolved to have him destroyed or dislodged
without delay. I therefore sent a messenger round
the location, to invite all who were willing to as.
sist in the enterprise to repair to the place of ren-
dezvous as speedily as possible. In an hour every
man of the party (with the exception of two pluck.
less fellows who were kept at home by the women)
appeared ready mounted and armed. We were

—

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142 NATURAL HISTORY.

also re-enforced by about a dozen of the ‘ Bastaard’
or Mulatto Hottentots, who resided at that time
upon our territory as tenants or herdsmen; an active
and enterprising, though rather an unsteady race
of men. Our friends the Tarka boors, many of
whom are excellent lion-hunters, were all too far
distant to assist us, our nearest neighbours residing
at least twenty miles from the location. We were,
therefore, on account of our own inexperience,
obliged to make our Hottentots the leaders of the
chase.

“The first pomt was to track the lion to his
covert. ‘This was effected by a few of the Hotten-
tots on foot. Commencing from the spot where
the horse was killed, they followed the spoor*
through grass, and gravel, and brushwood, with as-
tonishing ease and dexterity, where an inexperi-
enced eye could discern neither footprint nor mark
of any kind, until, at length, we fairly tracked him
into a large bosch, or straggling thicket of brush-
wood and evergreens about a mile distant.

The next object was to drive him out of this
retreat, in order to attack him in close phalanx, and
with more safety and effect. ‘The approved mode
in such cases is to torment him with dogs till he
abandons his covert, and stands at bay in the open
plain. The whole band of hunters then march
forward together, and fire deliberately one by one. ~
If he does not speedily fall, but grows angry and
turns upon his enemies, they must then stand close
in a circle, and turn their horses rear-outward ;
some holding them fast by the bridles, while the
others kneel to take a steady aim at the lion as he

* The Hottentot name for a footmark. +3

THE LION. 143

approaches, sometimes up to the very horses’ heels ;
couching every now and then, as if to measure the
distance and strength of his enemies. This is the
moment to shoot him fairly in the forehead or
some other mortal part. If they continue to wound
him ineffectually till he waxes furious and desperate ;
or if the horses, startled by his terrific roar, grow
frantic with terror and burst loose, the business
becomes rather serious, and may end in mischief,
especially if all the party are not men of courage,
coolness, and experience. ‘The frontier Boors are,
however, generally such excellent marksmen, and,
withal, so cool and deliberate, that they seldom fail
to shoot him dead as soon as they get within a fair
distance.

“In the present instance we did not manage
matters quite so scientifically. The Bastaards,
- after recounting to us all these and other sage laws
of lion-hunting, were themselves the first to depart
from them. Finding that the few indifferent hounds
we had made little impression on the enemy, they
divided themselves into two or three parties and
rode round the jungle, firing into the spot where
the dogs were barking round him, but without effect.
At length, after some hours spent in thus beating
about the bush, the Scottish blood of some of my
countrymen began to get impatient; and three of
them announced their determination to march in
and beard the lion in his den, provided three of the
Bastaards (who were superior marksmen) would
support them, and follow up their fire should the
enemy venture to give battle. Accordingly, in they
went (in spite of the warnings of some more prudent
men among us) to within fifteen or twenty paces of

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144 NATURAL HISTORY.

the spot where the animal lay concealed. He was
couched among the roots of a large evergreen bush,
with a small space of open ground on one side of
it; and they fancied, on approaching, that they
saw him distinctly, lying glaring at them from
under the foliage. Charging the Bastaards to stand
firm and level fair should they miss, the Scottish
champions let fly together, and struck—not the
lion, as it afterward proved, but a great block of
red stone, beyond which he was actually lying.
Whether any of the shot grazed him is uncertain ;
but, with no other warning than a furious growl,
forth he bolted from the bush. ‘The pusillanimous
Bastaards, in place of now pouring in their volley
upon him, instantly turned, and fled helter-skelter,
leaving him to do his pleasure upon the defenceless
Scots; who, with empty guns, were tumbling over
each other in their hurry to escape the clutch of
the rampant savage. In a twinkling he was upon
them, and with one stroke of his paw dashed the
nearest to the ground. The scene was terrific!
There stood the lion with his foot upon his prostrate
foe, looking round in conscious power and pride
upon the bands of his assailants, and with a port
the most noble and imposing that can be conceived.
It was the most magnificent thing I ever witnessed.
The danger of our friends, however, rendered it at
the moment too terrible to enjoy either the grand -
or the ludicrous part of the picture. We expect-
ed every instant to seé one or more of them torn
in pieces; nor, though the rest of the party were
standing within fifty paces with their guns cocked
and levelled, durst we fire for their assistance.
One was lying under the lion’s paw, and the other

THE LION. 148

scrambling towards us in such a way as to inter.

cept our aim at him. All this passed far more
rapidly than I have described it. But, luckily, the
lion, after steadily surveying us for a few seconds,
seemed willing to be quits with us on fair terms;
and with a fortunate forbearance (for which he met
with but an ungrateful recompense), turned calmly
away, and, driving the snarling dogs from beneath
his heels, bounded over the adjoining thicket like
a cat over a footstool, clearing brakes and bushes
twelve or fifteen feet high as readily as if they had
been tufts of grass, and, abandoning the jungle, re-
treated towards the mountains.

“ After ascertaining the state of our rescued com.

rade (who fortunately had sustained no other in.
jury than a slight scratch on the back and a severe
bruise in the ribs, from the force with which the
animal had dashed him to the ground), we renewed
the chase with Hottentots and hounds in full cry.
In a short time we again came up with the enemy,
and found him standing at bay under an old mimo.
sa-tree, by the side of a mountain-stream, which
we had distinguished by the name of Douglas Wa.
ter. The dogs were barking round, but afraid to
approach him; for he was now beginning to growl
fiercely, and to brandish his tail in a manner that
showed he was meditating mischief. The Hotten.
tots, by taking a circuit between him and the
mountain, crossed the stream and took a position
on the top of a precipice overlooking the spot where
he stood. Another party of us occupied a position
on the other side of the glen; and placing the poor
fellow thus between two fires, which confused his
attention and prevented his retreat, we kept batter-

146 NATURAL HISTORY.

ing away at him till he fell, unable again to grap-
ple with us, pierced with many wounds.

“ He proved to be a full-grown lion of the yel-
low variety, about five or six years of age. He
measured nearly twelve feet from the nose to the
tip of the tail. His foreleg below the knee was so
thick that I could not span it with both hands ; and
his neck, breast, and limbs appeared, when the skin
was taken off, a complete congeries of sinews.”*

We have thus contemplated the lion as described
by intelligent travellers and close observers; and
we have seen the urgent necessity by which he is
driven to’ the destruction of animal life, and the
terrible powers by which he accomplishes that de-
struction. As the objects of his appetite, and the
means which he employs for its gratification, are
in themselves upon an ample scale, and thus fili the
mind with an idea of great suffering inflicted by
equal ferocity, so do we feel an instinctive shud-
dering in reading of herds put to flight ; of some
one trembling victim borne off to be torne to pieces
by the beast in his lair; of man even suddenly de-
prived of existence by his desperate onset. Yet the
same power and the same ferocity are constantly
displayed before our*eyes, though upon a smaller
scale. The cat which springs upon the mouse is
as formidable in its ability to injure, within its pe-
culiar range, as the lion which carries away the
antelope from his companions. The same in-
stincts guide each to the same destruction of the
lives of others of the animal] creation. Throughout
all nature we see the like necessities producing the

* Notes to Pringle’s Ephemerides.

THE LION. 147

like effects ; and those necessities have been con.
sidered to form part of the general design, which
has thus established a sort of counterpoise to the
power and preponderance of any one individual
condition of existence. At any rate, we can have
no doubt, from an examination of the physical
structure of carnivorous animals, that in the de-
struction of life they fulfil the laws of their nature ;
and, however imperfectly we may understand the
titty of those laws, we cannot be insensible to the
perfection of the means by which they are carried
into execution.

The invariable analogy between the teeth and
the digestive organs of quadrupeds forms one of the
most beautiful studies of Comparative Anatomy.
The teeth that are made for tearing and cutting
flesh, and fitted into jaws of great strength, incapa-
ble of lateral motion, but closing together like a
pair of shears, are always accompanied with a
stomach of less complicated structure than that
which is fitted for the more difficult digestion of ve-
getable substances, particularly of grass, the most
indigestible of all. In quadrupeds which devour
their prey before absolute death has taken place,
while the flesh is not yet set and the blood still
warm, the stomach is of the most simple structure.
In such animals, also, the intestines are much short-
er than in those which feed entirely or partly on
vegetables. For instance, in the lion, those intes-
tinal parts which are called by anatomists the colon
and cecum, are three feet nine inches long; in the
goat, a much smaller animal, they are twenty feet
nine inches.* This simple stomach, and these

* Home, vol. 1,, p. 469,

148 NATURAL HISTORY.

short intestines are given to animals that are car-
nivorous, because the gastric juice of the stomach
is sufficient for the purpose of digestion without any
more complicated process. There is no doubt that,
by habit, a carnivorous quadruped, a domestic cat
for instance, may be brought to eat vegetable food ;

but an invariable preference will be given by it to
flesh. Upon the same principle of natural prefer-
ence, a young hawk, which is fitted by the con-

struction of its stomach for eating flesh, will cast

(as the falconers term it), that is, will bring up
the contents of its stomach, if two or three oats
are mingled with its meat. We see, therefore,
that if the teeth of a lion ora panther were able
to bruise grass, as those of the ruminating animals
are, their stomachs would be incapable of digesting
it; just in the same way that a sheep or a cow, if
its teeth could tear flesh, would be rendered sick
by eating that substance. To follow up the same
mode of reasoning, the structure of the stomach of
the lion being simpler than that of the hyena, we
have to inquire what difference this circumstance
produces in their habits; and we find the differ-
ence to be, that the one prefers to seize a living
body for its food, the other is attracted by a pu-
trid carcass. In the formation of each animal we
have principally to seek for the reason of its ac.
tions.

With these facts before us, we cannot doubt that,
in the natural state of the lion, the tiger, the leop-
ard, and other quadrupeds of the cat tribe, anima!
food is not only necessary to their existence, but
that their principal faculties must be directed to ©
the object of capturing that food. It would he

THE LION. . FS

contrary to the evidence we have constantly be-
fore us of the completeness with which Nature
works, to imagine that this ruling desire should be
continually harassing the beast of prey, and that
he should be provided with imperfect means for its
gratification. An examination of the structure of
the lion, with reference to the admirable mechan-
ism by which he is enabled to preserve his exist-
ence, cannot fail to lead the mind to a conviction
of the entire manifestation of design in this, as in
every other work of the creation.

The lion, as we have seen, principally lives in
the plains, and is always found where there are
large herds of wild antelopes and quaggas feeding
together, in that fellowship which is characteristic
of each species. ‘To all these animals he is an ob-
ject of unceasing dread. It is supposed, by the
agitation which oxen display when a lion is near
them, that they can scent him at a considerable dis-
tance. Whatever may be his physical strength,
therefore, and we know that it is prodigious, it is
evident he could not accomplish his purposes by _
strength alone. ‘The instinctive fear of the crea.
tures upon which he preys would be constantly
called into action by their keen sight and acute
scent; and they would remove to some distan
part before the destroyer could reach them. The
lion, too, as well as the tiger, and others of the
same species, seldom runs. He either walks or
creeps, or, for a short distance, advances rapidly
by great bounds.* It is evident, therefore, that he
must seize his prey by stealth; that he is not fit-
ted for an open attack; and that his character is

* Wilson’s Illustrations of Zoology.

150 NATURAL HISTORY.

necessarily that of great power united to consider-
ble wariness in its exercise.

Many are familiar. with the roar of the lion. It
is a sound of terror, and produces an appalling ef-
fect. It is said by travellers that it sometimes re-
sembles the sound which is heard at the moment
of an earthquake ; and that he produces this extra-
ordinary effect by laying | is head upon the ground,
and uttering a half-stified growl, by which means
the noise is conveyed along the earth.* The in-
stant this roar is heard by the animals who are
reposing in the plains, they start up with alarm;
they fly in all directions; they rush into the very
danger they seek to avoid. This fearful acd,
which the lion utters is produced by the great com-
parative size of the larynx,f the principal organ of
voice in all animals.t He utters it to excite that
fear which is necessary to his easy selection of an
individual victim.

The lion, as well as all of the cat tribe, takes his
prey at night; and it is necessary, therefore, that
he should have peculiar organs of vision. In all
those animals which seek their food in the dark,
the eye is usually of a large size, to admit of a greater
number of rays; and that part which is called the

Z ihe:

* Burchell, vol. ii. acme”

+ That part of the throat which forms the upper part of the
trachea (windpipe). It is composed of five cartilages. The
protuberance of the larynx inthe human subject is popularly
called ‘“‘ Adam’s apple.” _ ;

+ “ The size of the larynx is proportionate to the strength of
the sounds which the animals utter. The absolute size of the
larynx of the whale and the elephant is the largest, but rela-
tively the larynx of the lion has a still greater circumference.”
mae oe Blumenbach’s Comp. Anat., by Lawrence and Coul-
3On. a

THE LION. 151

choroides reflects, instead of absorbing, the light.
The power of seeing in the dark, which the cat
tribe possesses, has always appeared a subject of
mystery; and it is natural that it should be so, for
~ man himself sees with more difficulty in the dark
than any other animal: he has a compensation in
his ability to produce artificial light. ‘There were
formerly two opinions on the subject of the cat’s
eye : the one that the external light only is reflect.
ed, the other that light was generated in the eye
itself. Professor Bohn, of Leipsic, made experi-
ments, however, which proved that, when the ex-
light is wholly excluded, none can be seen
vat’s eye; and it is nowestablished that the
illumination is wholly produced by the external rays
of light, which, after being concentrated by those
parts which are called the cornea and the crystal.
line lens, are reflected in a brilliant concave mirror
at the bottom of the eye, called the tapetum.* This
effect may be constantly seen in the domestic cat.
In the strong light of day the iris is contracted, so
that a very small quantity of light is admitted to
this mirror; but in the twilight the zvis opens, and
then the mirror being completely exposed, the eye
glares in the manner with which we are all fa-
miliar. ‘The construction, therefore, of the eye of
the cat tribe enables them to collect in one focus
whatever rays of light there may be; and few pla-
ces are so dark but that some light may be found; as
we know, when we have gone into a cellar, where
the darkness at first appears impenetrable, but
where, even with our differently constructed or-
gan of vision, we soon distinguish objects without
* See Home, vol. iii., p, 243.

ot oh

>

*

152 NATURAL HISTORY.

difficulty. This peculiar eye, therefore, is neces:
sary to the lion to perceive his prey; and he creeps
towards it with a certainty which nothing but this
distinct nocturnal vision could give.

Every one must have observed what are usually
called the whiskers on a cat’s upper lip. The use of
these in a state of nature isvery important. They
are attached to a bed of close glands under the
skin, and each of these long and stiff hairs is
connected with the nerves of the lip.* The slight-
est contact of these whiskers with any surrounding
object is thus felt most distinctly by the animal, al-
though the hairs are themselves insensible. ‘They
stand out on each side in the lion as wel! as the

common cat, so that, from point to point, they are _.

equal to the width of the animal’s body. If we
imagine, therefore, a lion stealing through a covert
of wood in an imperfect light, we shail at once see
the use of these long hairs. ‘They indicate to him,
through the nicest feeling, any obstacle which may
present itself to the passage of his body; they pre-
vent the rustle of boughs and leaves, which would

give warning to his prey if he were to attempt to

pass through too clase a bush; and thus, in con-
junction with the soft cushions of his feet and the

fur upon which he treads (the retractile claws.

never coming in contact _ the ground), they en-
able him to move towards his victim with a stillness
greater even than that of the snake that creeps

along the grass, and not perceived till he has coil.

ed round his prey.
We must carry our minds to the point when all
these preliminary arrangements for bringing the
* Cuvier, Anat. Comp., Legon xiv., Art. vi.

THE LION. 153

lion within reach of some devoted animal have been
successful. The quagga is quietly listening for the
sound of his scattered companions. Atsome twen.
ty feet from him is the lion crouching and prepa-
ing for the spring. ‘The flexibility of his vertebral
column allows him to throw himself upon his prey
with prodigious swiftness, by the exercise of mus-
cular power; and this power is so great, that the
compression of the muscles upon the principal ar-
tery of the shoulder would produce a derangement
of the animal’s system, if that circumstance were
not provided against by a most singular and beau-
tiful expedient. ‘T’he os humeri (the bone of the
shoulder) is perforated in the lion tribe, to give a
more direct course to the brachial artery, that it
may not be compressed by the muscles when call-
ed into extraordinary action by the violence with
_ which their prey is seized.* The muscles of the
lion’s fore-leg are unusually firm, and so are those
of the thigh of a fighting cock.t This is a pecu-
liar character of the muscles of animals whose hab.
its are those of combat or of catching prey. Flex.
ible as the joints of the larger species of the cat
‘tribe are, they are knit together by the remarkable
strength of the muscles; and no other provision
would at once produce that pliancy and firmness
which particularly characterize the limbs of the
lion in the act of seizing his victim, and give both
a grace and a power to all his ordinary move.
ments.

The weight of the lion’s body, as compared with
his size, is very remarkable; and this is produced
by the extraordinary density of his muscles and
- * Home, vol. i., p. 76. + Home, vol. i., p. 34.

154 NATURAL HISTORY.

the compactness of his principal bones. The force,
therefore, with which he must alight after a bound
of fifteen or twenty feet, must be obvious. The
compensation against the jar produced by such a
leap is remarkable. In the treatise on Animal
Mechanics, in the Library of Useful Knowledge, it
_is shown howthe number of bones in the human
foot, arranged in a great number of joints, produ-
ces the elasticity which is_required in its compli-
cated movements. The lion’s foot has nearly the
same number of bones as the human, answering, of
course, the same end.* But as the cat tribe are
exposed, from their modes of life, to much more
violent jars upon the foot than man, so are they
furnished with a peculiar provision still farther to
break the force of a fall or of a leap. In the do-
mestic cat, we constantly observe the natural facil-
ity with which the tribe balance themselves when
springing from a height; and this facility has giv-
en rise to the popular opinion that a cat will always
fall upon its feet. The power of balancing them-
selves, whether leaping to or from an elevation, is
in some degree produced by the flexibility of the
heel, the bones of which have no fewer than six”
joints. But the softness with which the cat tribe

alight on their feet arises from an admirable iy

rangement of that Wisdom which fits every crea-

ture for its peculiar habits. In the middle of the

fcot there is placed a large ball or pad, in five parts,

formed of an elastic substance, intermediate in

_ structure between cartilage and tendon; and at the

~ base of each toe is a similar pad. It is impossible
* Home, vol.i., p. 125.

THE LION. 155

to imagine any mechanism more calculated to break
the force of a fall.

The same mechanism has been discovered in

_ several species of grasshoppers and locusts, whose
habit of jumping is well known; and in which the
structure is evidently for the purpose of taking off
the jar, when the body of the insect is suddenly
brought from a state of motion to a state of rest.
In a species of gryl/us brought from Abyssinia by

- Mr. Salt, the feet are made up of three joints: on
the under surface of the first are three pairs of glob-
ular cushions, filled with an elastic fibrous sub-
stance, looser in its texture towards its circumfer-
ence, which renders it more elastic; under the
second joint is one pair of similar cushions; and
under the last joint, immediately between the
claws, is a large oval sucker.* This sucker is for
__the purpose of supporting the insect against gravity ; iH
a mechanism which the fly possesses.t| A British +
species of grasshopper (acryolium bigutiulum) has i
the same cushions and the same oval sucker as ;
the grasshopper from Abyssinia. ‘The following ii
* Home, vol. iii., p. 202. 1

+ See Preliminary Treatise to the Library of Useful Know’ -
e.

—_

156 NATURAL HISTORY.

engraving of the foot of this species is magnified
two thousand five hundred times.

This similarity of structure, for similar purposes,
in the lion and the grasshopper, offers a remarka-
ble example of the uniformity of the contrivances
of Nature, which, however different be the applica-
tion, always attain the required end by the sim-
plest means.

We have seen, in an extract from Mr. Burchell’s
travels, that when his dogs attacked a lion, two of
them were killed by a very slight movement of the
lion’s paw. We must attribute this circumstance
to the remarkable hardness of the bone of the fore-
leg. The texture of this bone is so compact, for the
purpose of resisting the powerful contraction of the
muscles, that the substance will strike fire with
steel.* This hardness is produced, according to
the testimony of Mr. Hatchett, a distinguished
chymist, by the degree of closeness of the fibres
of which the bone is composed. From its extra-_
ordinary hardness, it was thought that the bone of

- the lion’s fore-leg was of a peculiar chymical com-
position; but Mr. Hatchett has also shown that it
only contains a larger proportion of phosphate of |
lime than is found in ordinary bones. Different
bones of other animals vary also in their degree of
compactness, and are hard in proportion to the
weight which the bone is required to support, o

* * Home, v., 354. *

’

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THE LION. 157

the exertion which it is destined to make. Thus
the fore feet of a race-horse and of a deer are very
small, but unusually hard. ‘The hardness of the
bone of the lion’s foreleg is, therefore, not only
necessary to bear the great muscular strain upon
it, but it forms a powerful instrument of destruction.
It will batter in a horse’s scull as if it were a
sledge-hammer.

The strength of the lion’s jaws, the power of the
muscles which move the lower jaw, and the con-
struction of his teeth for tearing, cutting, and crush.
ing animal matter, are popularly known.

There is one peculiar distinction of the lion, as
well as of all his congeners (animals of the same
family), which deserves a particular attention. The
most obtuse sense of this branch of carnivorous
quadrupeds is that of taste. According to Des-
moulins, the lingual nerve of the lion is not larger
than that of a middle-sized dog. The tongue of
all animals of the cat kind is an organ of mastica-
tion as well as of taste. Observe a lion with a
bone: whatever flesh his teeth leave on it is scra-
ped away by the sharp and horny points, incli-
ning backward, of his tongue. This circumstance
would render it impossible that the lion, or any,of
he larger beasts of the same family, could lick the
hand of a man, as we read in some fables, without
tearing away the skin. ‘The cut on the following
page is a greatly magnified representation of a por-
tion of the lion’s tongue.

We have thus, somewhat more particularly than
will be our usual practice, gone through several of
the most striking peculiarities of the lion’s’ struc-
ture. His conformation - evidently legegpee for

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158 NATURAL HISTORY.

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the destruction of animal life. We have noticed
the roar by which he rouses his prey; the eye by
which he sees it in the dark; the sensitive whis-
kers, and the cushioned foot, by which he creeps
upon it without noise; the great physical force by
which the spring upon the victim is performed, and
the provision against any injury from the exercise
of that force ; :fe powerful instrument with which
he strikes his prey, in itself most hard and mass-
ive, and armed with retractile claws; the teeth,
the jaw, the prickly tongue, by which he is ena-
bled to satisfy his appetite. All these properties
form a part of the condition of his existence; and
it should be borne in mind that the very nature of

is food has a tendency to preserve his charae-
ter unaltered; to support his enormous muscu-
lar strength; to perpetuate his sanguinary habits.
The study of Comparative Anatomy, from which
science we have collected this account of some of
the peculiarities of the structure of the lion, con-
stantly presents objects of similar interest. Galen,
when studying human anatomy, was so struck with

THE LION. 159°

the perfection with which all the parts of the human
arm and hand are adapted to one another, that he
composed a hymn to the Deity, expressing his ad-
miration of a piece of somuch excellence. The
more we extend our researches into the animal
kingdom, the more shall we be struck with this
extraordinary adaptation of the parts of living
bodies to their respective uses; the more shall
we be convinced, by our own imperfect knowl-
edge, of the perfection of that Wisdom and Power,
whose works are as marvellous as they are un-
bounded. :

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tiger, exhibited in 1829 at Atkins’s Menagerie.
This creature is particularly gentle, permitting

liberties from its keepers which are not so often al-

*

more beautiful than the power

lowed by the tiger in captivity as by the lion.

Nothing can be

, or better indicate

and freedom of its movements

a a

£

THE TIGER. 161
that force and agility which have so long been
the dread of the inhabitants of our Indian posses-
sions. | ee
The Tiger commonly called the Royal Tiger is
a native of Bengal, the kingdoms of Siam and of
Tonquin, of China, of Sumatra, indeed of all the
countries of Southern Asia situated beyond the In-
dus and extending to the north of China. The
species has long been most abundant in those coun.
tries; while the Asiatic lion, on the contrary, has
only been known withina few years. ‘The average
height of the tiger is about three feet, and the length
nearly six feet. ‘The species, however, varies con-
siderably in size; and individuals have often been
found much taller and longer than the lion. The
peculiar markings of the tiger’s skin are well known.
On a ground of yellow, of various shades in differ.
ent specimens, there is a series of black transverse
bars, varying in number from twenty to thirty, and
becoming black rings on the tail, the number of
which is, almost invariably, fifteen. There are
oblique bands, also, on the legs. The pupils of the
eye are circular.

Buffon has described the tiger, and so have many
other naturalists, as a creature which, in compari-
son with the lion, deserves all the hatred of man-
kind, and none of their admiration. “To pride
courage, and strength, the lion joins greatness,
clemency, and generosity; but the tiger is fierce
without provocation, and cruel without necessity.”
Thus writes the most eloquent of naturalists, taking
up prejudices instead of attending to facts, and using
his real information for the support of a false theo-
ry. Similar in edie <¥ construction, the tiger

2

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162 NATURAL HISTORY.

and the lion are similar in their habits; they are
equally cats, driven by their conformation to the
destruction of animal lifes The tiger, perhaps, is
somewhat more dangerous, for he has more activ-
ity than the lion; the clemency and generosity of
both are doubtless equal. There is, however, this
difference in their characters, which is in favour
of the lion. He assists the female in rearing their
young; the tiger deserts her. The tiger species
will also destroy each other, and a female has
been known to eat her cubs; but even this is not
uncommon with the domestic cat. Redi says, de-
scribing a menagerie, “ Among several curious
foreign animals was a female tiger, with a cub a
few months old in the same cage. This kind
mother, upon coming towards Florence, whether
out of sport or fury | will not undertake to say,
seizing the cub in her teeth, broke its leg, and sever-
ed it from the joint. When she perceived the limb
thus separated from the body, she devoured it most
voraciously, although there was abundance of flesh
in the cage besides.” Yet the general affection of
the tigress for her cubs cannot be doubted. Cap-
tain Williamson, in his work on “Oriental Field
Sports,” mentions that two tiger cubs were brought
to him while stationed in the Ramghur district
in India. ‘They had been found, with two others,
3 some country people, during the absence of the
mother. Being put in a stable, they made a loud
noise for several nights, till at length the tigress
arrived to their rescue, and replied to them by the
most fearful howlings. ‘The cubs were at last let
loose, in apprehension that their mother would
break in; and in the morning it was found that

THE TIGER. 163

she had carried them off to the neighbouring jun-

le. |
: As European civilization has advanced in India,
the race of tigers, the scourge of the country, has
gradually become less numerous. ‘The Hindoos
seldom voluntarily attempt to hunt the tiger, al-
though he invades their houses and carries off their
cattle, and very often the poor people themselves,
whenever there is a village in the neighbourhood
of an uncleared waste overgrown with reeds and
bushes, called a jungle. ‘The caste of Shecarries,
whose business is hunting, are not numerous enough
to accomplish this destruction effectually. The ac-
tive courage of Europeans will generally remove
the evil. Some years ago the island of Cossimbu-
zar was almost completely cleared of the tigers by
a German named Paul, of great muscular strength

-- and undaunted courage, who devoted himself to

their extermination. ‘This man is said to have shot
five tigers in one day. His rifle never failed; and
his success was such in this destruction of the
scourge of the country, that the enormous over-
grown wastes, which had almost been surrendered
without a struggle to those ferocious creatures,
were soon changed into fertile agricultural dis-
tricts.

The tiger, like the lion, springs upon its prey

from an ambush; and, in most cases, he is easily
terrified by any sudden opposition from human’ be-
ings. A party in India were once saved from a
tiger by a lady opening an umbrella as she saw
him about to spring. In narrow passes in Hindos.
tan travellers have often been seized by tigers,
ora bullock or horse has fallen a victim to the fe-

164 NATURAL HISTORY.

rocity of the prowling beast. Horses have such a
dread of the tiger, that they can scarcely ever be
brought to face him. Hunting him, therefore, on
horseback is a service of great danger. The ele-
phant, on the contrary, though considerably agita-
ted, will stand more steadily while his rider antici-
pates the fatal spring by a shot which levels the
tiger to the earth. One peculiarity of the tiger is
his willingness to take to the water, either when
7 pursued, or in search of the prey which he espies
on the opposite bank of a river.

The late Bishop Heber, in his journal, has given
a narrative of the mode in which a tiger hunt is
conducted, full of picturesque effect, and striking
from its minute detail :

“At Kulleanpoor, the young raja, Gourman
Singh, mentioned in the course of conversation that
there was a tiger in an adjoining tope which had
done a good deal of mischief; that he should have
gone after it himself had he not been ill, and had
he not thought it would be a fine diversion for Mr.
Boulderson, the collector of the district, and me. I
told him I was no sportsman; but Mr. Boulder-
son’s eyes sparkled at the name of tiger, and he
expressed great anxiety to beat up his quarters in
: the afternoon. Under such circumstances, I did
| not like to deprive him of his sport, as he would
3 not leave me by myself, and went, though with no
| intention of being more than a spectator. Mr.
Boulderson, however, advised me to load my pistols
for the sake of defence, and lent me a very fine
double-barrelled gun for the same purpose. We
| set out a little after three on four elephants, with a
servant behind each howdah, carrying a large chat.

THE TIGER. 165

ta, which, however, was almost needless. The
raja, in spite of his fever, made his appearance too,
saying that he could not bear to be left behind. A
number of people, on foot and-horseback, attended
from our own camp and the neighbouring villages,
and the same sort of interest and delight was evi-
dently excited which might be produced in England
by a great coursing party. The raja was on a
little female elephant, hardly bigger than a Durham
ox, and almost as shaggy as a poodle. She was a
native of the neighbouring wood, where they are
generally, though not always, of a smaller size
than those of Bengal and Chittagong. Hesat ina
low howdah,* with two or three guns ranged beside
him ready for action. Mr. Boulderson had also a
formidable apparatus of muskets and fowling-pieces
projecting over his mohout’s head. We rode about
_ two miles across a plain covered with long jungly
grass, which very much put me in mind of the
country near the Cuban. Quails and wild-fowl
arose in great numbers, and beautiful antelopes
were seen scudding away in all directions.”

The bishop then describes the beating of the
jungle, the rushing out of two curious animals of
the elk kind, called the “mohr,” and the growing
anxiety of all the people engaged in the hunt. He
then proceeds thus : |

“ At last the elephants all drew up their trunks
into the air, began to roar, and stamp violently with
their fore-feet. The raja’s little elephant turned
short round, and, in spite of all her mohout (her dri-
ver) could say or do, took up her post, to the raja’s

_* The howdah is a seat somewhat resembling the body of a
gig, and is fastened by girths to the back of the elephant.

5

166 NATURAL HISTORY.

great annoyance, close in the rear of Mr. Boulder-
son. . The other three (for one of my baggage ele-
phants had come out too, the mohout, though un-
armed, not caring to miss the show) went on slow-
ly, but boldly, with their trunks raised, their ears
expanded, and their sagacious little eyes bent in-
tently forward. ‘We are close upon him,’ said
Mr. Boulderson; ‘fire where you see the long
srass shake, if he rises before you.’ Just at that
moment my elephant stamped again violently.
‘ There, there,’ cried the mohout, ‘1 saw his head.’
A short roar, or, rather, loud growl followed, and |
saw immediately before my elephant’s head the
motion of some large animal stealing through the
grass. I fired as directed, and a moment after,
seeing the motion still more plainly, fired the sec-
ond barrel. Another short growl followed; the
motion was immediately quickened, and was soon
lost in the more distant jungle. Mr. Boulderson
said, ‘I should not wonder if you hit him that last
time ; at any rate, we shall drive him out of the
cover, and then I will take care of him.’ In fact,
at that moment the crowd of horse and foot spec-
tators at the jungle side began to run off in all di-
rections. We went on to the place, but found it
was a false alarm; and, in fact, we had seen all we
were to see of him, and went twice more through
tne jungle in vaineen * OF **

“ T asked Mr. Boulderson, on our return, whether
tiger-hunting was generally of this kind, which I
could not help comparing to that chace of bubbles
which enables us in England to pursue an otter.
In a jungle, he answered, it must always be pretty
much the same, inasmuch as, except under very

THE TIGER, 167

peculiar circumstances, or when a tiger felt himself
severely wounded, and was roused to revenge by
despair, his aim was to remain concealed, and to
make off as quietly as possible. It was after he
had broken cover, or when he found himself in a
situation so as to be fairly at bay, that the serious
part of the sport began, in which case he attacked
his enemies boldly, and always died fighting. He
added that the lion, though not so large or swift
an animal as the tiger, was generally stronger and
more courageous. ‘Those which have been killed
in India, instead of running away when pursued
through a jungle, seldom seem to think its cover
necessary at all. When they see their enemies
approaching, they spring out to meet them, open-
mouthed, in the plain, like the boldest of all ani-
mals, a mastiff dog. They are thus generally shot
- with very little trouble ; but if they are missed or
only slightly wounded, they are truly formidable
enemies. ‘Though not swift, they leap with vast
strength and violence; and their large heads, im-
mense paws, and the great weight of their body
forward, often enable them to spring on the head
of the largest elephants, and fairly pull them down
tothe ground, riders and all. Whena tiger springs
on an elephant, the latter is generally able to shake
him off under his feet, and then wo be to him.
The elephant either kneels on him and crushes him
at once, or gives him a kick which breaks half his
ribs, and sends him flying perhaps twenty paces.
The elephants, however, are often dreadfully torn ;

and a large old tiger sometimes clings too fast to

_be thus dealt with. In this case it often happens
that the elephant himself falls, from pain or from

168 NATURAL HISTORY.

the hope of rolling on his enemy; and the people
on his back are in very considerable danger, both
from friends and foes; for Mr. Boulderson said the
scratch of a tiger was sometimes venomous, as that
of a cat is said to be. But this did not often hap-
pen; and, in general, persons wounded by his teeth
or claws, if not killed outright, recovered easily
enough.”

There appears to be no greater difficulty in ren-
dering the tiger docile than the lion. As the sov-
ereign of Persia has his tame lions, so have the fa.
quirs, or mendicant priests of Hindostan, their tame
tigers. These will accompany them in their walks,
and remain, without attempting to escape, in the
neighbourhood of their huts. ‘The tigers in mena.
geries appear, with a few exceptions, to be ordina.
rily under as complete control as the species which,
for so long a time, has been supposed to possess all
the generous virtues of the genus felis.

Several keepers of menageries during the last
few years have succeeded in obtaining a mixed
breed between the lion and the tiger. Mr. Atkins

has exhibited cubs, produced at various times, by

the union of the lion with the tigress. In Septem-
ber, 1828, we saw two lion-tiger cubs in his exhi-
bition, which had been whelped at Edinburgh on
the 31st of December, 1827. Their general colour
was not so bright as that of the tiger species, and —
the transverse bands were rather more obscure.
The little animals were very playful, and the moth-
er was most tractable, suffering the keeper to en-
ter the den and exhibit her cubs to the spectators.

THE TIGER. 1 69

In the autumn of 1829 this tigress was exhibited
in the same den with her cubs and with the lion;
and the wonder of every spectator was excited by
the gentleness of the whole group, who clustered in
fondness round the keeper, and displayed their ex-
traordinary power of leaping, with the readiest
obedience to his commands. . ie

The tigress produces three or four cubs at a lit-
ter. . ¢

2 ———— 72 eee — ————
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170 NATURAL HISTORY.

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The average length of the leopard is under four
feet, and his height.is about two feet. The gener.
al colour of his skin and the arrangement of the
spots are exceedingly beautiful. The yellowish fawn
ground, which gradually becomes a perfect white
on the under parts of the body, is covered with —
black spots, of a round or oval form, on the head,
: neck, limbs, and back ; while on the sides and part

of the tail the spots unite in ten ranges of distinct

roses, surrounding a central area of a somewhat

_ deeper colour than the general ground. In the

Panther there are only six or seven ranges of
these roses.

The natural habits of the leopard, like those of

all the cat tribe, are compounded of ferocity and

THE LEOPARD. 171

cunning. He preys upon the smaller animals, such
as antelopes, sheep, and monkeys; and he is ena.
‘bled to secure his food with great success, from the
extraordinary flexibility ofhis body. The leopards
in the Tower of London, who have a tolerably
large cage, bound about with the quickness of a
squirrel, so that the eye can hardly follow their
movements. In Africa they are sometimes found
of extraerdinary size and rapacity. Their rela-
tive size principally distinguishes the leopard and
the panther, the latter being ordinarily the larger.
M. Cuvier considers them distinct species, although
they are doubtless often mistaken by travellers,
from their great similarity. |

We have been favoured, by a gentleman who
was formerly in the civil service at Ceylon, with
the following description of an encounter with a
leopard or panther, which in India are popularly
called tigers :

“JT was at Jaffna, at the northern extremity of
the island of Ceylon, in the beginning of the year
1819, when, one morning, my servant called me
an hour or two before my usual time, with ‘ Master,
master! people sent for master’s dogs; tiger in the
town!’ Now my dogs chanced to be some very
degenerate specimens of a fine species called the
Poligar dog, which I should designate as a sort of
wiry-haired greyhound, without scent. I kept them
to hunt jackals; but tigers are very different things ;
by-the-way, there are no real tigers in Ceylon ; but
leopards and panthers are always called so, and by
ourselves as well as by the natives. This turned
out to be a panther. My gun chanced not to be
put together; and while my servant was doing it,

172 NATURAL HISTORY.

the collector and two medical men, who had re-
cently arrived, in consequence of the cholera mor-
bus having just then reached Ceylon from the Con-
tinent, came to my door, the former armed with a
fowling-piece, and the two latter with remarkably
blunt hog-spears.. They insisted upon setting off
Without waiting for my gun, a proceeding not much
to my taste. The tiger (I must continue to call
him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which,

as those of Ceylon huts in ceneral, spread to the
ground like an umbrella; the only aperture into it
was-a small door about four feet high. ‘The col-
lector wanted to get the tiger out atonce. I beg-
ged to wait for my gun; but no, the fowling-piece
(loaded with ball, of course) and the two hog-spears
were quite enough. I gota hedge-stake, and await-
ed my fate from very shame. At this moment, to
my great delight, there arrived from the fort an
English officer, two artillerymen, and a Malay
captain; and a pretty figure we should have cut
without them, as the event will show. IJ was now
quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute
afterward. ‘The whole scene which follows took
place within an enclosure, about twenty feet square,
formed on three sides by a strong fence of palmyra
leaves, and on the fourth by the hut. At the door
of this the two artillerymen planted themselves ;

and the Malay captain got at the top, to erat

the tiger out by unroofing it; an easy opera
as the huts there are covered with cocoanut le
One of the artillerymen wanted to go in to the ti-
ger, but we would not suffer it. At last the beast
sprang; this man received him on his bayonet, —
which he thrust apparently down his throat, firing

~

THE LEOPARD. 173

his piece at the same moment. The bayonet broke
off short, leaving less than three inches on the mus.
ket; the rest remained in the animal, but was in-
visible to us: the shot probably went through his
cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him,
as he instantly rose upon his legs, with a loud roar,
and placed his paws upon the soldier’s breast. At
this moment the animal appeared to me to about
reach the centre of the man’s face; but I had
scarcely time to observe this, when the tiger, stoop-
ing his head, seized the soldier’s arm in his mouth,
turned him half round, staggering, threw him over
on his back, and fell upon him. Our dread now
was, that if we fired upon the tiger we might kill
the man: for a moment there was a pause, when
his comrade attacked the beast exactly in the same
manner as the gallant fellow himself had done.
He struck his bayonet into his head ; the tiger rose
at him; he fired; and this time the ball took effect,
andinthe head. The animal staggered backward,
and we all poured in our fire. Hestill kicked and
writhed ; when the gentlemen with the hog-spears
pieanedd and fixed him, while some natives finish-
ed him by beating him on the head with hedge-
stakes. The brave artilleryman was, after all,
but slightly hurt: he claimed the skin, which was
very cheerfully givento him. There was, however,
acry among the natives that the head should be
cut off: it was; and, in so doing, the knife came
directly across the bayonet. 'The animal measured
scarcely less than four feet from the root of the tail
to the muzzle.”

The leopard of India is called by the natives the
“tree tiger,” from its on of ascending a tree

2

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174 NATURAL HISTORY.

when pursued, or for the purpose of enabling it to
spring securely on its prey. It is doubtless able to
effect this ascent by the extraordinary flexibility of
its limbs, which give it the power of springing up-
ward; for, in the construction of the feet, it has no
sreater facilities for climbing than the lion or the
tiger. It cannot clasp a branch like the bear, be-
cause the bone called the clavicle is not sufficiently
large to permit this action. ‘The Indian hunters
chase the leopard to a tree: but veg ip this ele-
vated spot it is a task of great diffici
him; for the extraordinary quickness of the crea:
ture enables him to protect himself by t
rapid movements. The Africans catch this species
in pitfalls, covered over with slight hurdles, upon
which there is placed a bait. In some old writers
on Natural History there are accounts of the leop-
ard being taken in a trap by means of a mirror,
which, when the animal jumps against it, brings
down the door upon him. ‘This story may have

\\\

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received some sanction from the disposition of the
domestic cat, when young, to survey her figure in in
a looking- glass.

THE PUMA. 175

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Puma. Felis concolor, LINN US. ;

The puma is a native of the New World, and is
principally found in Paraguay, Brazil, and Guiana.
He is, however, often seen in the United States ;
but there, as in every other part of the world, civili-
zation daily lessens the range of those animals
which live by the destruction of others. The puma, |
in its natural state, is a sanguinary creature, at-
cking the smaller quadrupeds, and often destroy-

ing more than can be necessary for the satisfaction i

of his appetite. He is alarmed at the approach of
men or of dogs, and flies to the woods, where he
mounts trees with great ease. He belongs to the

|. same division of cats as the lion, by the essential

2

176 NATURAL HISTORY

is of a reddish-yellow or silvery-fawn; but, unlike
the lion, he is without a mane, and the tail has no
: tuft. The average length of the puma is about four
i feet, and its height about two feet. It stands lower
on the legs than the mice and the head is round and
small.
| The puma, which was long called the American
| lion, though a large animal, is not an object of
| great dread to the natives of the regions to which
he belongs. Heiseasily tamed. D’Azara, the nat-
4 uralist, had one which was as sensible to caresses
ia
;
|
.
id
{

: character of the unspotted colour of his skin, which
|

as the common cat; and Mr. Kean, the tragedian,
had a domesticated puma, which was much attached
to him. - Although there have been instances of the
puma attacking and even destroying the human
species, in South America they have an instinctive
dread of any encounter of this nature. Captain
Head, in his “ Journey across the Pampas,” has the
following interesting anecdote of the puma, which,
in common with other capes he incorrectly
calls the lion:

“The fear which all wild pete in America
have of man, is very singularly seen in the Pampas.
I often rode towards the ostriches and zamas,
crouching under the opposite side of my horse’s
neck ; but | always found that, although they would
allow any loose horse to approach them, they, even
when young, ran from me, though little of my
ure wasvisible ; and when one saw them all oni.
ing themselves in such full liberty, it was at first
not pleasing to observe that one’s appearance was
everywhere a signal to them that they should fly
from theirenemy. Yet it is by this fear that ‘man

THE PUMA. 179

hath dominion over the beasts of the field,’ ana
there is no animal in South America that does not
acknowledge this instinctive feeling. As a singu.
lar proof of the above, and of the difference between
the wild beasts of America and of the Old World,
I will venture to relate a circumstance which a
man sincerely assured me had happened to him in
South America. |

‘“‘ He was trying to shoot some wild ducks, and,
in order to approach them unperceived, he put the
corner of his poncho (which is a sort of long nar-
row blanket) over his head, and crawling along the
ground upon his hands and knees, the poncho not
only covered his body, but trailed along the ground
behind him. As he was thus creeping by a large
bush of reeds, he heard a loud, sudden noise be-
tween a bark anda roar: he felt something heavy
strike his feet, and, instantly jumping up, he saw,
to his astonishment, a large lion actually standing
on his poncho ; and perhaps the animal was equally
astonished to find himself in the immediate presence
of so athletic aman. ‘The man told me he was un-

willing to fire, as his gun was loaded with very

small shot ; and he therefore remained motionless,
the lion standing on his poncho for many seconds :
at last the creature turned his head, and walking
very slowly away about ten yards, he stopped and
turned again: the man still maintained his ground,
upon which the lion tacitly acknowledged his su-
premacy and walked off.”

We have thus described the structure and appear-
ance, and traced the habits of several species of
the cat tribe ; and have particularly seen that the
invariable characteristic of the race—of whatever

178 NATURAL HISTORY:

form, of whatever colour, of whatever physical
power the individual variety may be—is a ruling
desire for the destruction of animal life. In some
species this desire is carried into action with more
boldness, in others with more cunning; but in all
there is a mixture of cunning and boldness, more
or less mingled with a suspicion which assumes the
appearance of fear, the unchanging property of all
treacherous natures. The creature which lies at
our fireside, leaps upon our table, sits upon our
knee, purs round our legs, attends us at our meals,
never forsakes our houses, and altogether appears
as if it could only exist in dependance upon man—
the domestic cat—is precisely of the same nature
as the leopard or the puma. In this case, unlike
that of the dog, there is no doubt which is the ori-
ginal head of the domesticated stock. The wild
cat of the European forests is the tame cat of the
European houses ; the tame cat would become wild
if turned into the woods; the wild cat at some pe-
riod has been domesticated, and its species has been
established in almost every family of the old and
new continent. eo) MOU iio

The domestic cat has been multiplied with the
multiplication of the small noxious animals that fol-
low the progress of civilization. As man erects
houses, these animals seek therein shelter and food.
Without the cat, this would have been, and would —
still be,a most serious evil. ‘The fecundity of mice
would make them the most troublesome inmates of a
family ; and their attacks upon every eatable sub.
stance would cause a great diminution of the pro.
duce of human industry. It would be difficult to
trace the period when the wild cat was first brought

THE CATs 179

ftom the woods, where it preys upon the birds, and
fieldmice, and leverets, and young rabbits, with as
much avidity as the lion hunts after antelopes and
oxen. But there must have been a period when it
first occurred to man that the instincts of this ani-
mal might be subdued to his uses. In the ruder
ages of society—in the tenth and eleventh centu-
ries, for instance—we find domestic cats very
scarce ; and laws were then passed against their
mutilation, and other regulations made, which show
the importance attached to their preservation. In
the Collection of Welsh Statutes (Leges Walle)
may be found the value of a cat of every age, and
of each degree of adroitness and vigour. The pas-
‘sion for animal food, or, rather, the desire to destroy
a living animal, is the quality which makes the cat
valuable. to man. Domestication does not extin-
suish the passion ; for the pampered inmate of the
parlour does not forget its nightly prowl through -
every part of a house where mice can come; and
the consequence is, that we are, toa great degree,
unmolested by these troublesome visiters, who would
be quite as offensive, though not so dangerous,
- as the numberless varieties of ferocious creatures
which the dog has so materially assisted us in sub-
duing or exterminating.

The wild cat (fedus catus) is much about the size
of the ordinary cat; and is of a gray colour, marked
with black stripes, longitudinal on the back, and
transverse on the flanks; the lips and soles of the
feet black; the tail marked with rings, with a black
tip. ‘The domestic cat (felis catus domesticus) has
no essential external variation from the wild stock,
except, perhaps, in the great brilliancy of its col-

80 NATURAL HISTORY.

ours. The lips and the soles of the feet are also
constantly black, as well as the end of the tail.
There is, however, this peculiarity in tl he dome stic
species ; it is not entirely carnivorous, fo:
readily eat bread and other vegetable matter
following up the constant analogy betweer
and structure, we find the intestines. of the tame
proportionably longer than those of the wild vari-
ety. Domestic cats, too, will devour insects.
Quadrupeds seldom prey upon insects, although the
anteater is an exception, as well as the mole; and
the common hedgehog has lately been domesticated
in London, for the more complete destruction of
black beetles than can be effected by cats or traps
of glass.

It would be a singular inquiry, though somewhat
difficult, to ascertain what qualities the cat has lost
by domestication, and what it has acquired. Some
of its instincts appear perfect as in the natural state,.
some more matured, and some nearly subdued.
The same cruelty belongs. to the domestic cat as:
the wild; that instinct is never subdued. But the
range of its food is limited by its hereditary habits:
of domestication. There isno doubt that wild cats
will seize on fish; and the passionate longing of
the domestic cat after that { ood is an evidence of
the natural desire. We have seen a cat overcome
her habitual reluctance to wet her feet, and seize -
an eel out of a pail of water. Dr. Darwin alludes
to this propensity: “ Mr. Leonard, a very intelli-
gent friend of mine, saw a cat catch a trout by dart-
ing upon it in a deep clear water, at the mill at
Weaford, near Lichfield. The cat belonged to
Mr. Stanley, who had often seen her catch fish in

THE CAT. 18]

the same manner in summer, when the millpool
was drawn so low that the fish could be seen. [|
have heard of | other cats taking fish in shallow wa.
ter as they stood on the bank. This seems to be

al method of taking their prey, usually lost
by domteeeication, though they all retain a strong
relish for fish.” Some of their instincts are un-
changed by domestication, although they have
ceased to be of use ; and a habit of reasoning does

not so completely become mixed with the instinct

as in the dog.

The ability of cats to seize upon their ordinary
prey, mice or birds, does not appear to lose any-
thing by domestication. The extraordinary pa.
tience with which a cat will watch a mousehole
for hours, is doubtless a natural property. This
determined bending of the will to one object is
probably a principal cause of the fascination
which some serpents possess. In a very agreea-
ble book recently published, “'The Journal of a
Naturalist,’”’ we find several instances of this pow.
er being exercised by hawks upon smaller birds.
The author of that journal says, “ There can be no
doubt of the fact that instinctive terror will subdue
the powers of some creatures, rendering them stu-
pified and motionless at the sudden approach of
danger. Cats, in some degree, are supposed to
possess this power of terrifying their prey. Mon.
taigne gives a story illustrative of the notion:

“ There was at my house, a little while ago, a
cat seen watching a bird upon the top of a tree,
and for some time they mutually fixed their eyes
upon each other. At length the bird let hersels
fall dead into the cat’s claws, either dazzled and as-

Q

"hal

182 NATURAL HISTORY.

tonished by the force of imagination, or drawn by
some attractive power in the cat. This is similar
to the story told of the falconer, who, having earnestly
fixed his eyes upon a kite in the air, laid awager that
he would bring her down by the power of sight
alone, and succeeded, as it was said; for, when I
borrow a tale of this kind, I charge it upon the
conscience of those from whom I have it.?* There
is no doubt that a mouse will sometimes suddenly
yield itself to the power of its enemy. Montaigne
very properly doubts the story of the falconer ;
though the human eye has certainly great power,
particularly in warding off the attack of a dog or
a COW.

One of the most remarkable properties of a do-
mestic cat is the anxiety with which it makes it-
self acquainted, not only with every part of its usual
habitation, but with the dimensions and external
qualities of every object by which it is surrounded.
Cats do not very readily adapt themselves to a change
of houses ; but we have watched the process by
which one, whose attachment to a family is consid-
erable, reconciles itself tosuch achange. He sur-
veys every room in the houses from the garret to
the cellar ; ; if a door is shut, he waits till it be open-
ed to complete the survey; he ascertains rel-
ative size and position of every article of fu: es
and when he has acquired this knowledge, he sits
down contented with his new situation. It appears
necessary to a cat that he should be intimately ac-
quainted with every circumstance of his position,
in the same way that a general first examines the —
face of the country in which he is to conduct his

* Essays, i., 20.

V

THE CAT. . 183

operations. Ifa new piece of furniture, if even a
large book or portfolio, is newly placed in a room
which a cat frequents, he walks round it, smells it,
takes note of its size and appearance, and then
never troubles himself farther about the matter.
This is, probably, an instinctive quality ; and the
wild cat may, in the same way, take a survey of
every tree or stone, every gap ina brake, every
path in a thicket, within the ordinary range of its
operations. ‘The whiskers of the cat, as we have
mentioned in the case of the lion, enable it to as-
certain the space through which its body may pass,
without the inconvenience of vainly attempting such
@ passage.
_ The memory of a cat must be very strong, to
enable it to understand this great variety of local
circumstances after a single observation. The
same power of memory leads this animal, much as
its affection may be doubted, to know the faces of
individuals. We have seen a cat exhibit manifest
delight upon the return of its master, or of a per-
son from whom it had received peculiar kindness.
There are several instances of strong attachment
to the human race in cats, though in number and
intensity they fall far short of the attachment of
the dog. They have sometimes, also, great affec-
tion to other animals, which becomes a reciprocal
feeling. ‘The celebrated horse, the Godolphin Ara-
bian, and a black cat, were for many years the
warmest friends. When the horse died in 1753, .
the cat sat upon his carcass till it was put under |
~ ground; and then, crawling slowly and reluctantly
away, was never seen again till her dead body was
found in a hayloft.* Stubbs painted the portraits
* Lawrence’s History of the Horse, p. 109.

er eae

.

was so atta
ble, the creature would never leave her usual seat
upon the horse’s back; and the horse was. so well
pleased with the attention, that, to accommodate his
friend, he slept, as horses will sometimes do, stand-
ing. This, however, was found to injure his health,

and the cat was removed to a distant part of the
country.

The attachment of domestic cats to human indi-
viduals is by no means universal with the species,
nor, indeed, is it verycommon. ‘The cat, toacer-
tain extent, knows the voice and person of its mas-
ter; and, what is singular, cats have antipathies to
particular individuals. The effects of discipline
upon the cat are very inferior to the influence of
chastisement or caresses upon the dog. The dog,
when he is beaten or reproved for a particular of.
fence, seldom repeats it; the cat, as far as we have
seen, can never be prevented importuning for food ;
jumping upon you, sitting in your chair, clamber-
ing upon a table, tearing furniture, scratching
up plants, however constantly it may be beaten
for these annoyances. Cats may be taught to pe
form tricks, such as leaping over a stick, but the
always do such feats unwillingly. There is an eX
hibition of cats in London, where the animals, at
the bidding of their master, an Italian, turn a wheel,
draw up a bucket, ring a bell, and in doing these
things, begin, continue, and stop as they are com-
manded. But the begin, continue, stop of their
keeper is always enforced with a threatening eye,
and often with a severe blow ; and the poor crea.

*

THE CATs 185

tures exhibit the greatest reluctance to proceed
with their unnatural employments. They have a
subdued and piteous look; but the scratches upon
their master’s arms show that his task is not al.
ways an easy one.

_ A strong affection for her young chs pre-
vails in the female cat; and the feeling has some.
times produced an unusual foresight. The follow.
ing fact is mentioned to us as having recently oc-
curred. A short time before a cat produced kit-
tens, she was observed to hoard up several mice
and young rats, which she did not quite kill, but
lamed, so as to prevent their escaping. One day,
after dinner, when our informant was sitting with
a friend, the cat bounced into the room in eager
chase of one of her maimed prisoners ; a young rat,
_ which had, as it appeared from the report of the
servants, been some days under surveillance in a
back court. ‘The rat sprung up the window-cur-
tain for safety; but, being unable to retain its po-
‘sition, was soon recaptured. This was a refine-
ment of cruelty which peculiarly marks the species ;
it was carrying the odious habit of torturing its
prey, which is characteristic of the cat, to a dis.
gusting extent. 4a

_ It is by no means uncommon among the insect
tribes to secure live prey for their future offspring.
The ichneumon fly, for example, lays its eggs in the
body of a live caterpillar, and the larve thence pro-
duced feed on it without killing it, till their trans-
formation into pup. The sphew also, or sand.
wasp, when it makes a nest, encloses in it a supply
of live grubs, proportioned to the wants of the fu-
ture offspring. The circumstances respecting the

Q2

“te fe oe
he ca aa
* ,
186 NATURAL HISTORY. |
oa
eat (which was verified in several instances) would

been so remarkable had it occurred after &

whether for her own or their subsistence, is well —
worthy of notice. The same strength of maternal
feeling sometimes induces cats which have lost their _
kittens to continue for a week or two to bring mice _
and other provision to their bed, in expectation of
the return of the kittens. A gentleman informed
us, that more than a fortnight after his cat had been
deprived of her kittens, she came in with a mouse, _

0 and searched all over the house for them with ” ee
prey, making a complaining noise. :

These circumstances, which indicate the desire
which the female cat has for the preservation of —
her young, are not incompatible with the well-known
fact of her rearing the young of other animals,
The exercise of the maternal duties is always a mn
strong gratification ; and it is not, therefore, won- —
derful that if the opportunity is suddenly withdrawn, a
the desire should adapt itself to any accidental
means of satisfaction, however strange. We have
many instances of this. Mr. White givestwowelle

known examples in his history of Selborne, of a cat m
supporting a leveret and squirrels; and Dr. Dar.

win has the following account of a similar circum. © tid
stance: “ At Elford, near Lichfield, the Rev. Mr.
Sawley had taken the young ones out of a hare

which had been shot. They were alive; and his
cat, which had just lost her own. kittens, carried
them away, as it was supposed, to eat them; but
it presently appeared that it was affection, not hun-
ger, which incited her, as she suckled them and
brought them up as their mother,” 7

a i

>»

187

The following anecdote, of a similar nature, has
been communicated to us upon authority which we
. doubt: A cat and a bitch, belonging r toa
ady, chanced to have young at the same time.
The cat, not liking the place assigned her for her
kittens, carried them, without having been perceived,
_ ) a drawer containing clothes, which was soon
afterward pushed in, and the kittens imprisoned in
it. In the mean while, the bitch, having gone out
of doors, was either stolen or isilerh as she never
returned to her pups. ‘These were found out and
‘adopted by the cat. A day or two after this sin-
_ gular adoption, the kittens were discovered in the
ha so nearly starved that they all died, except
e, within a week. ‘The cat, however, continued
* to nurse both this one and her adopted pups till they
were full grown.
-- One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the
domestic cat is the property which its fur possesses
* of yielding electric sparks by rubbing. In frosty
| weather this is occasionally very extraordinary.
anne the severe cold of January last, we several
_ times received a very acute electrical sensation upon
merely touching a large black cat lying before a
pres _ Mr. White says, speaking of the frost of 1785,
“during these two Siberian days, my parlour cat
was so ‘electric, that, had a person stroked her and
_ been properly insulated, the shock might have been
given to a whole circle of people.”

It isa very prevalent notion that cats are fond of
sucking the breath of infants, and, consequently, of
producing disease and death. Upon the slightest
reflection, nothing can be more obvious than that
it is impossible for cats to suck an infant’s breath,

, &

‘ie

188 NATURAL HISTORY. ‘
| te

at least so as to do it any injury; for even on the
supposition that they did so, the construction of their
‘mouth must preclude them from interrupting the
process of breathing by the mouth and the nose
at the same time. The vulgar notion must have
arisen from cats nestling about infants in beds and
cradles to procure warmth. Cats are particularly
solicitous to be comfortably placed as to tempera-
ture. In winter they get before the fire to sleep;
in summer they seek the shade of a tree, where
the air is fresh and cooling. ‘

The cat ordinarily breeds thrice in a year, and
goes with young fifty-five or fifty-six days. She
brings forth four or five kittens, which she nourishes
for some weeks with greatcare. ‘The average du-
ration of a cat’s life is about fifteen years. .

scenes ts ' §

4

The following is the scientific char ankce: of the |
carnivorous genus Felis, which is fi in Europe,
Asia, Africa, and America, but which has not yet |
been recognised in Australasia: — -

Arrangement of the teeth: )

Incisors, £, Canine, 1—1, Molar, 474, or 873.

Total, 30, or 28.
The head round; the tongue covered with sharp
prickles, pointing ‘backward ; the ears pointed; the
pupils of the eye sometimes contracting in a verti- |
cal line, sometimes in a circle; three toes on the
hind feet, and four on the front, each armed witha
retractile claw, which is completely ractile on the

fore feet.

THE CAMEL. 189

CHAPTER VIII. -

THE CAMEL.

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The Arabian Camel. Camelus Dromedarius, LINNZUS.—Drom-
edaire, BuFFON et G. CUVIER.

‘THE camel has, been created with an especial
adaptation to the region wherein it has contributed

- to the comfort, and even to the very existence of
man, from the earliest ages. It is constituted to
endure the severest hardships with little physicai
inconvenience. Its feet are formed to tread lightly
upon a dry and shifting soil; its nostrils have the

*

ZZ =
ON ey)
ANG N Wa —

>

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190 NATURAL HISTORY.
capacity of closing, so as to shut out the driving

vhen the whirlwind scatt t over the desert ;

Rit is provided with a peculiar apparatus for retain-

ing water in its stomach, so that it can march from
well to well without great inconvenience, although
they be several hundred miles apart. And thus,
when a company of eastern merchants cross from
Aleppo to Bussorah, over a plain of sand, which
offers no refreshment to the exhausted senses, the
whole journey being about eight hundred miles, the
camel of the heavy caravan moves cheerfully along,
with a burden of six or seven hundred weight, at
the rate of twenty miles a day; while those of
greater speed, that carry a man without much other
load, go forward at double that pace and daily dis-
tance. Patient under his duties, he kneels down
at the command of his driver, and rises up cheer-
fully with his load; he requires no whip or spur
during his monotonous march ; but, like many other
animals, he feels an evident pleasure in musical
sounds; and, therefore, when fatigue comes upon
him, the driver sings some cheering snatch of his
Arabian melodies, and the delighted creature toils
forward with a brisker step till the hour of rest ar-.
rives, when he again kneels down to have his load
removed fora little while ; and, if the stock of food
be not exhausted, he is farther rewarded with a few
mouthfuls of the cake of barley which he cz
for the sustenance of his master and himself.
der a burning sun, upon an arid soil, enduring g7
fatigue, sometimes without food for days, and sel-
dom completely slacking his thirst more than once
during a progress of several hundred miles, the
camel is patient, and apparently happy. He ordi-

THE CAMEL. 191

narily lives toa great age, and is seldom visited by
any disease. And why is this? He lives accord.
ing to his peculiar nature ; while with us, as we
sometimes see him in our streets, his nature is out-
raged even by the greater care taken to provide
for what are considered his physical wants.

The camel with one hump, which we ordinarily
call the dromedary, has been reared at one place
in Europe for two centuries ; this place is Pisa in
Italy. His habits are there, to a certain extent,
the same as in his native region; but the soil and
climate of Europe are ill adapted to his organiza-
tion. The camels of Pisa have degenerated ; they
are weaker than those of the East; and their lives
are of comparatively short duration. This circum-
stance is a convincing proof that the natural local-
ity of the camel is an arid and thirsty region, offer-
- ing little vegetable food, and that little of the coars-
est kind. That region comprises Arabia, all the
northern district of Africa, which extends in length
from Egypt to Mauritania, and in breadth from the
Mediterranean Sea to the River Senegal; Egypt,
Abyssinia, Persia, Southern Tartary, and parts of
India. Over this extensive region is the camel
spread ; and here he has formed the best posses-
sion of the people from the time of the patriarchs.
He is called Djemal by the Arabs, and Gamal by
the Hebrews. The Bactrian camel with two
humps is much more rare; and this species is
principally found in Turkistan, which is the ancient
Bactri, and in Thibet, as far as the frontiers of
China.

The accounts of the natural history of the camel,
and especially of its habits, which we find in east-

Ly

.

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19% NATURAL HISTORY.

ern travellers, are somewhat vague; and this is to
be ascribed to the extraordinary a Mince; in which

‘the animal is found. The naturalist or man of

letters, who travels with a caravan consisting of
many hundred camels, is struck with the general
effect of objects so new and so extraordinary, with-
out inquiring into the details of their individual pe-
culiarities. In the same way, if a foreigner who
had never seen a horse were brought to London,
his imagination would be impressed by the vast
number and the beauty of these animals when em-
ployed by the wealthy and luxurious ; by their great
strength and usefulness when drawing the heavy
wagons of commerce ; and perhaps by their wretch-
ed appearance when, as is too often the case, worn
out with service, they drag on a painful existence
in humbler employments, ill fed, beaten, exposed to
every change of the seasons, and tasked beyond
their strength. But he would learn little of the
personal history of these horses, of their peculiari-
ties of breed, of their modes of nourishment, of
their training, of their sagacity, of their generous
courage, of their affection to their masters. Much
of this sort of individual anecdote we want in the
general accounts of the camel ; though, by compa-
ring various slight and incidental notices of travel-
lers in Asia and Africa, we may be able to collect
many curious and valuable particulars of the * |
of the animal.
The camel with one hump is digtinensialan by

naturalists as the camelus dromedarius. The term
dromedary properly applies to a very swift spe-
cies of camel. The name of kayndAoc dpowac (fleet
camel) was given by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus

at

THE CAMEL: 193

to a single | rac papi the species, of great speed,
now called by the Arabs e/ heirie. Obtaining the
word dromedary from dromas, we have popularly,

and even scientifically, applied it to the species.
A dromedary is to a camel what a racer is to a
horse of burden. There are one-humped and
two-humped dromedaries, and one-humped and two-
humped camels.

The lean and almost fleshless body of the camel
is covered with hair, which is very short on the
forepart of the muzzle: this becomes longer on the
top of the head, and almost tufty on the neck and
parts of the fore legs, on the back, and particularly
on the hump, which it covers all over. The tail
is also thick with hair, which extends considerably
beyond the vertebra. The colour of the hair
varies: it is either white, with a slight tint of rose-
colour, gray, bay, or dark brown approaching to
black. The hair falls off, and is renewed every
year about the end of spring and the commence-
ment of summer.

M. Santi has described the peculiar excitation
of the camel for about two months of the year,
February and March. During this period these
patient and gentle creatures, particularly the male,
become restless and ferocious; will bite their
keepers; and fight among themselves with their
teeth and feet.

- The female camel goes with young between
eleven and twelve raonths, at the end of which time
she has one foal.

Of the mode of breaking and training the camel
by the people of the East, we have no complete
account. M. Santi supplies this information with

R

=

ug

194 NATURAL HISTORY.

regard to those of Tuscany. At the age of four
years, a camel which is intended for labour is
broken in. ‘The trainers first double up one of his
fore legs, which they tie fast with a cord; they
then pull the cord, and thus usually compel the
animal to fall upon his bent knee. If this does
not succeed, they tie up both legs, and he falls upon
both knees, and upon the’ callosity which is upon
his breast. ‘They often accompany this operation
with a particular cry, and with a slight blow of a
whip. At this cry and blow, with the addition of
a sudden jerk downward of his halter, the camel
gradually learns to lie down upon his belly, with
his legs doubled under him, at the command of his

driver. The trainers then accustom him to a

pack-saddle, and place on it a load, at first light,
but increased by degrees as the animal increases
in docility ; till at last, when he readily lies down
at the voice of his dviven, and as readily rises up
with his load, his education is so far complete.
The burden of a fall -srown camel is sometimes
four hundred kilogrammes (above 800 lbs.); but
such a load, if we may judge by other anepUms, is
excessive.

He is accustomed, in the same gradual manner,
to allow his driver to mount, and to obey all his
orders, and even his motions, in the direction of
his course. M. Santi- says, that it is “4
tedious nor a difficult task thus to subdue an ¢
mal of a timid and gentle nature, without defence,
and whose spirit has been broken by a long course
of slavery. The camel is sometimes oppressed by
the loads which are placed upon him when he is
kneeling before his driver, and he expresses his

m

THE CAMEL. 195

displeasure. M. Denon, who travelled in Egypt
during the expedition of Napoleon, and published
a splendid work illustrative of the manners and an-
tiquities of the country, has given us a spirited
sketch of a camel thus suffering and irritated.
« He cries out,” says M. Denon, “ when he is either
laden too heavily or laden Meesialiy. This good
animal complains only of injustice, and then it must
be extreme for him to complain at all.”

The camel has seven callosities, upon which he
throws the weight of his body, both in kneeling
down and rising up. ‘These consist of one on the
breast, two on each of the fore legs, and one on
each of the hind. He sleeps always with his knees
bent under his body and his breast upon the ground.
Some naturalists have contended that these callosi-
ties are produced by the constant friction to which
the parts are exposed upon which they grow, in the
same way that a tight shoe will produce a corn.
M. Santi saw these seven callosities upon a camel
just born ; and he is unwilling to believe that they
are an hereditary effect of the labour to which the
species has been subjected for many centuries.
This is an opinion which these naturalists have
adopted, and it has been echoed by historians : Gib-
bon says the camel bears marks of servitude. For
the same reason, that he is born with it, M. Santi
doubts the opinion which has also been expressed,
that the hump on the back of the camel is an hered-
itary effect of constant pressure upon that part.
We are only acquainted with the domesticated
camel; for although M. Desmoulins, a distinguish-
ed French naturalist, asserts that the camel ex-
isted in a wild state in Arabia in the time of

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196 NATURAL HISTORY.

Adrian (A.D. 117), and the natives of Central
Africa maintain that they are to be found wild in
the mountains where Europeans have never pene-
trated, it is highly probable that these statements
refer to individual camels wandering from the con-
trol of man. We know nothing distinctly of the
camel but as one of the most useful and important
servants of the human race; and, therefore, we
have no means of contrasting a wild with a domes.
ticated species. But, in the absence of positive
evidence to the contrary, it is more easy to believe
that the original organization of the camel should
have been adapted to the services to which it is
destined, than that the services should have altered
the organization. ‘The callosities enable the ani-
mal to receive its load (in the only position in
which man could put on that load), by preventing
the fracture of its skin by the pressure either when
it rises up or kneels down; and the hump on the
back is so far from being a callosity produced by
friction, that it is a soft, fatty substance, which is
gradually absorbed into the system when the ani-
mal is without food, and is renewed when he ob-
tains pasturage ; an evident proof that it is one of
the several admirable provisions which he possess-
es for his support in the desert. We could as
readily believe that the wonderful mechanism of
the camel’s stomach, by which it is enabled to ab-
stain from water for many days, is a result of its
habits, instead of its powers of abstinence being a
consequence of this construction, as that its hump
and its callosities are meee cdtary badges of
its subjection to man; and yet this opinion, mon-
strous as it is, has been adopted by a distinguished

» THE CAMEL. 197

naturalist, as we shall have occasion more particu-
larly to notice,

_ The uses which the camel has served in the civ-
ilization of mankind, in those countries of the East
where civilization first commenced, have been of
such importance that they would fairly enter into
the scheme of a wise and beneficent Providence.
Unless such an animal had existed in Asia (a
country intersected by immense arid plains, and
impassable with burdens except by a creature pos-
sessing at once great strength and an extraordi-
nary capacity of enduring privation), the intercourse
of mankind would have been confined to small
spots where abundance reigned; the commodities
of one part of that immense region could not have
been exchanged for those of another ; commerce,
the great moving principle in the extension of civ-
ilization, would have been unknown; and knowl.
edge would have been limited to particular districts,
and would there have been of the most stunted and
feeble growth, in the same way that a native crab-
stock produces sour and worthless fruit, till some
slip from the tree of another climate is grafted upon
it. Thus, instead of the learning of the Hindoos
and the Egyptians being communicated from one
region to the other,* and thence, spreading over
Greece, becoming the imperishable possession of
the human race ; and instead of the produce of the
East being brought to the West, to induce that
taste for comforts and luxuries which principally
develops the human intellect, that portion of man-
kind which was first civilized would probably at
this day have been in the same state of ignorance

* See Frederic lan nila of Literature,

198 NATURAL HISTORY.

as the Indians of South America, whose communi.
cations are cut off by sandy deserts and inaccessible
mountains, and who thus believe that the affairs of
their mission (a settlement of a few hundred natives
under a priest) comprise everything that can be of
interest to any individual of the great family of man.

Asia is, without doubt, the original country of
the camel. ‘The earliest mention of commerce in
the Sacred Writings is associated with the cara-
vans. When the brethren of Joseph had cast him
into a pit, “they sat down to eat bread; and they
lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold a com-
pany of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their
camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, go-
ing to carry it down to Egypt.’* It would appear,
from this mention of spices, and from the more
particular notice of cinnamon in the third chapter
of Exodus, that the products of India were exported
into Egypt and Palestine; for cinnamon is an ex.
clusive production of India, although the ancients
erroneously supposed this spice, as swell as all the
other spicies of commerce, to have grown in Ara-
bia. The Arabians were the great carriers, in the
early times, of the valuable produce of the Indian
peninsula. Isaiah speaks of the commerce of Sa-_
beea or Sheba (Arabia Felix): “The merchants of
Sheba and Ramah, they were thy merchants; they
occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and
with all precious gold and any cnt This com-

merce was probably, for many centuries, entirely

carried on by land, and chiefly by the agency of

the camel ; but we learn from the Journal of Ne-
archus, a navigator of the time of Alexander the
* Genesis, c. Xxxvii., v. 25.

oy ee

Piathiass eee

THE CAMEL. 199

Great, whose work has come down to us, and has
been adinirably translated and commented upon
by Dr. Vincent, that the Arabians, three hundred
years before Christ, traded to India by sea. In the
Aime of Pliny, this active people had considerable
factories on the coasts of Malabar and Ceylon.
The Arabians carried their merchandise across the
deserts to Egypt ; and while they thus possessed a
monopoly of the Indian trade as regarded Egypt,
the Egyptians held the same monopoly as regarded
Europe.

‘The camel of Asia is frequently mentioned, not
only by sacred but profane writers, as connected
with the warlike operations of the Eastern people
as well as with their commerce. It was a custom
of the nations of Judea, when they went to battle,
to adorn their camels with studs and collars of gold :
6° And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmun-
na, and took away the ornaments that were on their
camels’ necks.”* ‘The same practice of adorning
camels is said to prevail at the present day in many
of the countries of Asia. In Egypt the camel was
known from the earliest antiquity ; for in the twelfth
chapter of Genesis we find it stated that Pharaoh
bestowed camels upon Abram when he came with
his wife into that country.

In the countries of the East, among the many
remarkable contrasts which the natural productions
and the customs of the people present to those of
Europe, there is nothing more striking than the
universal employment of the camel. It is not ne-
cessary to penetrate into the interior of Asia to
witness this great change in the mode by which

* Judges, c. vill., v. 21.
ra

t

200 NATURAL HISTORY.

commercial operations are conducted. For in.
stance, the merchant who visits the seaport of
Smyrna, the great point of trafic between the
Franks and the Turks, sees this new animal power
everywhere around him, performing those services
which he has been accustomed to observe executed
by the horse and the mule; and even superseding,
and rendering unnecessary, that great medium of

“more advanced communication, canal carriage.

Burckhardt, the celebrated traveller, says, “ In coun-
tries where camels are bred in great numbers, land-
carriage is almost as cheap as that by water. The
carriage for a camel-load of goods, weighing from
six to seven hundred pounds English, from Bagdad
to Aleppo, a distance of six hundred miles, is four
pounds.”* All labour, of course, is cheaper in
countries where the people are contented with
scanty fare, and know nothing of those luxuries
which almost the meanest among us enjoy; but
the great abundance of camels, and the easy rate
at which they are maintained, render this animal
power the readiest instrument of commercial in-
tercourse. ‘he use of it is therefore universal
throughout Asia Minor, a country where consider-
able trading adventures are carried on, and from
which Europeans, and particularly the English, de. |
rive large supplies of the valuable productions of a
fertile soil and a delicious climate.

The Turks, who are idle and luxurious, and af-
fect a contempt for the quiet virtues, call the Ar-
menians, whom they despise age patient and drudg-
ing race, camels. This is a compliment both to
the poor animals and the Armenians, for the cam-

* Twenty dollars, Travels 2 Nubia, 4to, p. 120.

—"

THE CAMEL. 201

els are the most amiable of creatures. Their good.
nature to other beasts, we are told, is remarkabie,
They will let the goats of the towns and villages
share their meals, and almost take the provender
from their mouths; the ass of the driver takes
equal liberties, and dogs lie down to sleep with them
without interruption. But the Turks take a sorry
advantage of those periodical fits of rage which
constitute the exception to the general character of
this useful creature. At particular seasons of the
year, camel-fights are common at Smyrna and at
Aleppo. Such exhibitions are the disgrace of the
vulgar (be they the high or the low vulgar) of all
countries ; and the lion-fights of the savage Ro.
mans, the bullfights of Spain, the bull and badger
baitings and cockfights of England, and the camel.
fights of Asia Minor, are equally indications of a
barbarian spirit, which can only be eradicated by
knowledge and true religion. Of these, however,
the camel-fights appear the least objectionable.
The camels of Smyrna are led out to a large plain,
filled with eager crowds. ‘They are muzzled to
prevent their being seriously injured, for their bite
is tremendous, always bringing the piece out. A
couple being let loose, they run at each other with
extreme fury. Mr. Macfarlane thus describes to
us this curious scene: “One of the favourite holy-
day amusements of the Turks of Asia Minor is
furnished by the camel combats. An enclosure is
made, and two camels, previously muzzled so that
they cannot hurt each other much, are driven in,
and incited to fight with each other. Their mode
of combat is curious: they knock their heads to-
gether (laterally), twist their long necks, wrestle

ws

202 NATURAL HISTORY.

with their fore legs, almost like bipeds, and seem
to direct their principal attention to the throwing
down of the adversary. During this combat, the
Turks, deeply interested, will back, some one camel
and some the other; and they will clap their hands
and cry out the names of their respective favour-
ites, just as our amateurs do with their dogs, or as
the Spaniards, at their more splendid and more
bloody bullfights, will echo the name of the hardy
bull or the gallant matador. ‘The pacha of Smyrna
used frequently to regale the people with these
spectacles in an enclosed square before his palace ;
and I saw them besides, once, at a Turkish wed.
ding at the village of Bournabah, near Smyrna, and
another time, on some other festive occasion, at

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THE CAMEL. 203

Magnesia. I once, however, chanced to see a less
innocent contest, which I have noticed in my vol-
ume of travels. This was on the plain between
Mount Sipylus and Tartalee and the town of Smyr-
na. It was a fight in downright earnest. ‘Two
huge rivals broke away from the string, and set to
in spite of their drivers. ‘They bit each other fu-
riously, and it was with great difficulty the devid-
gis succeeded in separating these (at other times)
affectionate and docile animals.”” The popular
amusements which the camel affords in other parts
of the Kast are of a less ferocious nature. Ata
particular season of the year, the Mohammedans in
the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai have camel races,
and this festival is a time of great rejoicing.*

The training of the camels to bear burdens, in
the countries of the East, has not been minutely
described by any traveller. M. Brue, who, at the
latter part of the seventeenth century, had the man.
agement of the affairs of a French commercial
company at Senegal, says, “Soon after a camel is
born, the Moors tie his feet under his belly, and,
having thrown a large cloth over his back, put
heavy stones at each corner of the cloth, which
rests on the ground. ‘They in this manner accus-
tom him to receive the heaviest load.” Both an-
cient and modern authors agree tolerably well in
their accounts of the load which a camel can carry.
Sandys, in his “ Travels in the Holy Land,” says,
“ Six hundred weight is his ordinary load, yet will
he carry a thousand.” The camel sometimes car-
ries large panniers filled with heavy goods; some-
times bales are strapped on his back, fastened either

* Burckhardt’s Syria, p, 490.

#. |

204 NATURAL HISTORY.

with cordage made of the palm-tree or leathern

thongs; and sometimes two or more will beara

sort of litter, in which women and children ride
with considerable ease. The animal is so docile
and steady, so regular in his movements and pres
cise in his steps, and, withal, so capable of sustain.
ing a very large and unwieldy burden, that his dri-
ver seldom hesitates about the bulk, or the awks
wardness in any other way, of what he places on
his back. Captain Lyon, among the Arabs of
Northern Africa, observed many of the children
carried in leather bags, which were ordinarily used
to keep corn in; and in one instamee the Saw @
nest of children on one side of a camel, and its
young one in a bag hanging on the other. In the
Great Desert, Riley, who was a captive to the
Arabs, used to assist the women and children to
place themselves in baskets, which were made of
camel’s skin, and fixed in such a manner, with a
wooden rim around them, over which a skin was
sewed, that three or four could sit in them with per.
fect safety and ease, only taking care to preserve

their balance. But the patience of the camel in

bearing every sort of load, and his uncomplaining
nature when overburdened, sometimes lead to op-

pression. He is occasionally too heavily weight- —

ed; and though there prevails an opinion that he
will not rise with too great a load, he often sinks
under his burden and expires.

Bishop Heber, in his journey to Cawnpoor, i in
the East Indies, says, “In the course of this even-
ing my attention was attracted by the dreadful
groans of one of our baggage-camels, at some little
distance among the trees. I went to the spot, and

‘
‘pong

ll ,

THE CAMEL. 205

found that two of the ‘ sarbauns,’ or camel-drivers,
had bound its legs in a kneeling posture, so that it
could not rise or stir, and were now busy in burn.
ing it with hot irons in all the fleshy, muscular,
and cartilaginous parts of its body. They had
burned six deep notches immediately under the eye,
its haunches, and head, and were now applying
the torturing instrument to its forehead and nos-
trils. I asked what they were doing, and they an-
swered that it had a fever and wind, and would die
if they did not treat it in this manner.”’ The ani-
mal did die in a few hours. This was not intend- _
ed as cruelty, for the Indians, doubtless, firmly bes —
lieved in the efficacy of their torture. Among
many rude nations, particularly those of Africa,
the excitement produced by burning muscular and
fleshy parts of the body is the general remedy for-~

_ every disease of the human frame ; ard as the peo-
ple sometimes get well in spite of the remedy, the
credit of the art is never impeached by the suffer.
ings of its victims. Quackery is everywhere the
same, endeavouring to make particular remedies of
universal application ; and, therefore, necessarily
committing an infinity of mistakes of the most seri-
ous consequence.

Avarice and ill temper will occasionally Moire
the Arabs and Turks maltreat their camels ; though
it is due to them to state that these instances are
rare. ‘The animal is usually treated with the care
and kindness which his usefulness and his goodness
demand. Mr. Macfarlane says, “I have been
told that the Arabs will kiss their camels in grati-
tude and affection after a journey across the des-
erts. I never saw the ‘Turks, either of Asia Minor

ieee
”

~*

s

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206 NATURAL HISTORY.

or Roumelia, carry their kindness so far as this ;
but I have frequently seen them pat their camels
when the day’s work was done, and talk to them
on their journey, as if to cheer them. The camels

_ appeared to me quite as sensible to favour and gen-
_tle treatment as a good-bred horse is. I have seen

them curve and twist their long lithe necks as their
driver approached, and often put down their tran-
quil heads towards his shoulder.” ;

Again he says, “ Near Smyrna, and at Magne-
sia and Sardes, I have occasionally seen a camel
(a special favourite) follow his master like a pet
dog, and go down on his knees before him as if
inviting him to mount. I never saw a Turk ill use
the useful, gentle, amiable quadruped. But I have
frequently seen him give it a portion of his own
dinner, when, in unfavourable places, it had nothing
but chopped straw to eat. I have sometimes seen
the devidjis, on a hot day or in passing ‘a dry dis-
trict, spirt a little water in the camels’ nostrils ;
they pretend it refreshes them.”

The Asiatics and Africans distinguish a as drome-
daries those camels which are used for riding.
There is no essential difference in the species, but
only in the breed. The camel of the heavy cara-
van, the baggage camel, may be compared to the
dray-horse ; the dromedary to the hunter, and, in
some instances, to the race-horse. It is to be re-
gretted that naturalists have called the camel with ©
one hump the dromedary, for this appellation pro-

duces a confusion in reading tho e travels which,

very properly, use the name drom edary as applied
by the natives to a swift or riding . Burck-
hardt, before his expedition into } bought two

THE CAMEL. — 207

dromedaries, one of which he rode ten hours a day
for thirty-five days. ‘The speed of some of these
animals is very great, compared with the slow
march of the caravan. Messengers on dromeda.
ries, according to Burckhardt, have gone from Da.
rou to Berber in eight days, while he was twenty.
two days with the caravan on the same journey.
The first experiment which a European makes
in bestriding a dromedary is generally a service of
some little danger, from the peculiarity of the ani-
mal’s movement in rising. Denon has described
this with his usual vivacity. During the French
invasion of Egypt, a part of Dessaix’s division, to
which the scientific traveller was attached, was
sent with camels to a distant post across the des-
ert. “The boute-selle (the mounting at a signal)
was very amusing. The camel, slow as he gen-
erally is in his actions, lifts up his hind legs very
briskly at the instant his rider is in the saddle ; the
man is thus thrown forward: a similar movement
of the fore legs throws him backward. Each mo-
tion is repeated ; and it is not till the fourth move.
ment, when the camel is fairly on his feet, that the
rider can recover his balance. None of us could
resist the first impulse ; and thus nobody could
Jaugh at his companions.”* Mr. Macfarlane tells
us in his letter, that upon his first camel adven-
ture he was so unprepared for the probable effect
of the creature’s rising behind, that he was thrown
over his head, to the infinite amusement of the
Turks, who were laughing at his inexperience.
His description of this experiment is as lively as
that of Denon: “I was acquainted with this pecu-
* Denon, Voyage, tom. ii., p. 221, Paris, 1802.

: i

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- *

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ete a

-

208 ari HISTORY.
ov
liarity of animal movement in a striking manner,
the first time I mounted a camel out of curiosity. ;
I ought to have known better, and, indeed, did ’
“know better ; but, when he was about to rise, from
old habits associated with the horse, l expected he .
would throw out his> fore legs, and I threw myself
forward accordingly, when up sprung his hind legs,
and clean i went over his ears, to the great amuse-
ment of the devidjis.” ; | |
Riley tellsa somewhat similar story of the effect
of the rough movement of a large camel: “ They
placed me on the largest camel I had yet seep
which was nine or ten feet in height. The camels
were now all kneeling or lying down, and mine
among the rest. I thought I had taken a good » ~
hold, to steady myself while he was rising; yethis
motion was so heavy, and my strength so far exs
hausted, that I could not possibly hold on, and tum.
bled off over his tail, turning entirely over. I
came down upon my feet, which prevented my re.
ceiving any material injury, though the shock to
my frame was very severe. The owner of the
camel helped me up, andasked meif | was injured:
I told him no. ‘God be praised! said he, ‘for
turning you over; had you fallen upon your head,
these stones must have dashed out your brains.
But the camel,’ added he, ‘is a sacred animal, and
Heaven protects those who ride on him! Had yeu
fallen from an ass, though he is only two cubits
and a half high, it would have killed you; for the
ass is not so noble a creature as the camel and the
horse.’ I afterward found this to be the prevailing
opinion among all classes of the Moors and the
Arabs. When they put me on again, two of the

a —_— Ts.

THE CAMEL. 209
3 ‘ a

men steadied me by the legs until the camel was
fairly up, and then told me to be careful, and to
hold on fast; they also took great care to assist
my companions in the same way.”* '
, Every preparation for a long journey being com-
pleted—the dromedaries and horses having their
riders on their backs, and the camels having receiv-
ed their bales of goods and their water-skins—the
caravan sets forward on its march. In Asia, an
ass, bearing a tinkling bell, usually walks at the
head, and the camels follow, one by one. Mr. Mac-
farlane thus describes this arrangement, as well as
their measured pace: “The caravans, or strings
of camels, are always headed by a little ass, on
” which the driver sometimes rides. The ass has a
_tinkling bell round his neck; and each camel is
ommonly furnished with a large, rude bell, that pro-
duces, however, a soft and pastoral sound, suspend-
ed, not to the neck, but to the front of the pack or
saddle. As I have observed of the mules of Spain
and Italy, they will all come to a dead stop if these
bells be removed by accident or design; and like
the mules also, they always go best in a long single
line, one after the other. We tried the experiment |
of the bell at Pergamos. ‘Two stately camels, the
foremost furnished with the bell, were trudging
along the road with measured steps: we detached
the bell with a long stick ; they halted as the sounds
ceased, nor could we urge them forward until their
ears were cheered with the wonted music. I have
used the word measured, not as matter of poetry,
but of fact. Their step is so measured and like
clockwork, that on a plain you know almost to a
* Riley’s Shipwreck oe Captivity, p. 289, 4to.

‘
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a

r
210. NATURAL HISTORY.
yard the distance they will goina giventime. In
the flat valleys of the Hermus and Caicus, I have ~
made calculations with a watch in- my hand, and

‘have found, hour after hour, an unvarying result,

the end of their journey being just at the same pace
as the beginning: their pace is three miles an
hour.” He adds, “ I may remark as curious, that
the devidjis always preserve the same order of dis-
tribution, or, as we might say, in military language,
‘dress the line,’ in the same manner. ‘Thus one
camel always goes first, another second, another
third, and so on; and if this order is interfere
with, the beasts will become disorderly, and 1
not march. Each gets attached to a ied.
camel of the caravan, prefers seeing his tail be-
fore him to that of any other, and will not go if
you displace his friend.” “We met caravans of.
camels,” says Dr. Clarke, speaking of Cyprus,
“ marching according to the order always observed
in the East; that is to say, in a line, one after the
other ; the whole caravan being preceded by anass,
with a bell about his neck.”* Burckhardt gives the
reason for the camels thus travelling in a single file:
“The Souakin caravans, like those of the Hedjaz,
are accustomed to travel in one long file: the
Egyptians, on the contrary, march with a wide ex.
tended front ; but the former method is preferable,
because, if : any of the loads get out of order, they
can be adjusted by leading the oe el out olete
line before those behind have come uv
ter case, the dhs caravea ae stop Be any
accident happens toa single camel. The caravans
*
from Bagdad to Aleppo ‘and Damascus, consisting
* Travels, vol. iv., p. 74, 8vo.

THE CAMEL.
ae 211

sometimes of two thousand camels, marching
abreast of each other, extend over a space of more
than a mile.” ‘The individual camels, which march
in line, invariably follow the steps of the one which
precedes them ; and thus they are often led wrong
if the drivers are negligent. They are sometimes
tied, the one to the tail of the other, like strings of
horses in England. Burckhardt, in his journey
from Mecca to Medina,* says, “the Arab riding
foremost was to lead the troop; but he frequently
fell asleep, as well as his companions behind, and
camel then took his own course, and often led
) » whole caravan astray.’ In the deserts, it re-
quires especial vigilance and extraordinary local
_ knowledge in the drivers. to keep the right direc-
tion. The compass is sometimes used; but gen-
erally, the camel-drivers ascertain their course by
some marks known only to themselves ; some sand-
bank, or prickly shrubs, which only their experien-
ced eye can distinguish from similar objects. “ Ev-
ery spot in the plains of Arabia is known by a par-
ticular name; and it requires the eyes and experi-
ence of a Bedouin to distinguish one small district
from another. For this purpose, the different spe-
cies of shrubs and pasturage produced in them by
the rains are of great assistance ; and whenever
they wish to mention a certain spot to their com-
panions, which happens to have no name, they al-
ways designate it by the herbs that grow there.”
The camels of the caravan are wholly dependant
upon those which precede them for\the regularity
of their pace or for their haltings ; and they there-
fore are completely under the direction of the lead-
* Travels in Arabia, 182% ~ Burckhardt’s Arabia

COU

212 NATURAL HISTORY.

er, whether the man or the beast assume that office.
Even a rider can never stop his dromedary while
its companions are moving on ; and thus it is a point
of excellence ina traveller, with which the Arabs

are highly pleased, to jump off and remount with-
out stopping his beast.* The leading camel, how-

ever, requires to be excited by its rider ; and, if it
is not urged on by hearing the human voice, it
gradually slackens its pace, and at last stands still
to rest. If the leading camel once stops, all the
rest do the same. Burckhardt, in his journey
through Arabia, often walked ahead of the cara-
van: he sometimes had to wait a long time for its
coming up, and having retraced his steps, would

find the camels standing still, and every soul upon.

them fast asleep. It is indifferent to these poor
creatures where they stop; for they are regardless
of shade, and will remain quietly exposed to the
hottest beams of the sun.t As long as the voice of
the driver is heard, the camel does not heed what

situation he isin, Captain Lyon saw a blind camel..

driver, who held by the animal’s tail, and was in the
habit, with this assistance, of going constantly over
an uneven and dangerously steep track. Whatever
be the nature of the road they toil over, they plod

steadily on. Burckhardt says, “it is an erroneous

opinion that the camel delights in sandy ground;
it is true that he crosses with less difficulty than
any other animal; but, wherever the sands are deep,
the weight of himself and his load makes his feet
sink into the sand at every step, and he groans and
often sinks under his burden. It is the hard, grav.
elly ground of the desert which is most agreeable
* Burckhardt’s Syria. ; + Clarke, iv,, 74.

Gi ee eee ee ee ee ee

THE CAMEL. 213

to this animal.” Major Denham says, that in the
stony desert “ the sharp points bruise their feet, and
they totter and fall under their heavy loads.” This
is an apparent and not’a real contradiction between
these two excellent authorities. The foot of the
camel is adapted’ to tread upon a smooth surface,
whether that surface be hard or soft. This foot is
divided into two toes, without being separated. It
is partly like the hoof of a horse, and partly cloven ;
for a horny sole spreads from the heel forward,
under the foot, uniting the middle part, and leaving
the toes free. This horny sole is part of an elastic
substance, which, being bedded in two cavities of
the foot, yields to the pressure of the soil; while
the toes spread upon touching the ground, in the
same way that the reindeer’s foot extends, to pre-
gent a large surface to the snow.* We thus see

by
me Nh
hs 73°

ihe
he 7

Inside of a Camel’s Foot.—A is the cushion upon which the animal
treads, _ as lifted out of its beds.
that the camel, having a very large, spreading, and
elastic foot, moves with ease over any smooth sur.
face, and does noi sink into the sands with his heavy
* See Preliminary Discourse.

214 NATURAL HISTORY.

lading and his own large body, in the same way
that he would if his foot were small and hoofed, as
that of the horse. From the opinion of our obli-
ging correspondent, Mr. Macfarlane, we should be
led to conclude that loose stones are not such an
annoyance to the camel as might at first be suppo-
sed. He says, *’The foot, certainly formed by na-
ture to tread a loose sandy soil, does not, however,
appear to me to suffer from stony or hard roads.
In Asia Minor there are mountains in every direc-
tion; the paths across them are hard, rough, and
loose, as rocks and broken stones can make them ;
yet I have often seen camels treading them without

‘ any appearance of suffering ; and though I have met

them in my travels, hundreds in a day, I do not re-
member having ever seen a wounded hoof.” The
surface which the camel chiefly dislikes is mud ;
for in that he slips about: and thus he is, with the
greatest difficulty, prevailed upon to cross a loose,
muddy track, howeyer narrow, though he will wade
through a river without much entreaty. Mr. Mae.
farlane assures us, that he has seen the devidjis
spread the coverings of their tents, and even their
own garments, over the obnoxious ground, that the
camels might walk without fear,

The camel will ascend and descend hills if they
are not too steep. In the desert they sometimes
meet with sand-banks, from twenty to sixty feet |
high, and almost perpendicular, which must be
crossed. The camel, in such aMeitiona: constantly
blunders and falls with his heavy load ; and, in de-
scending, the Arabs hang with all their weight on
the animal’s tail, to steady him.* Thus his docil.

* Denham, p. 28, M

¥

THE CAMEL. ie

_ity compensates, in some degree, for the difficulty
Rehich he occasionally finds in travelling; and it -
must be remembered, that sharp rocks and steep
hills are the exceptions to the general character of
the countries over which he traveis, and for which
his conformation is so admirably adapted. Rivers
also rarely occur, and yet the camel will readily
cross them. Norden, a celebrated. Danish travel-
ler in Egypt and Nubia, was struck with the mode
in which loaded camels crossed the Nile. “A
man swam before, holding in his. mouth the bridle
of the first camel; the second camel was fastened
to the tail of the first, and the third to the tail of
the second. Another man, sitting on a truss of
straw, brought up the rear, and took care that the
second and third camels should follow in a row.”
Captain Lyon heard from natives of Africa, that
camels are conducted across the Niger by men
who hold them by their long upper lips, and keep
their heads above water: the forepart of that ani-
’ mal being the heaviest, another man sits behind
the hump, in order to raise the fore and depress
the hinder parts while crossing. Major Denham
describes a passage of the Shary, an African river,
which was effected with considerable risk: “ The
stream was extremely rapid, and our horses and
camels were carried away from the sides of the
canoe to which they were lashed: we lost a camel
by this passage; these animals have a great dis-
like to water, any after swimming a co. are
often seized with illness, and are meiriad off in a
few hours.” Burckhardt, describing the passage
of a river in Nubia, says, “ An inflated goatskin was
tied to the neck of each camel, to aid it in swim.

>

216 NATURAL HISTORY.

ming; but we had great difficulty in getting pa.
‘into the water, the Egyptian camel not being ac
customed to this mode.of passing the river. My
guide stripped, and laid hold of the tail of his camel
with one hand, while he urged the beast forward
am with a stick sahivh he carried in the other.” Thus
) we see that, under different circumstances. and ‘in
various countries, different methods are employed
to convey the camel across streams upon which
there are no rafts or boats; and that though the
patient animal has an objection to the water, his
docility triumphs over his instinct, and he yields te
the will of his driver, sometimes even at the <r
of his life.

The halts of the caravan for the re are eX-
i | ceedingly curious and picturesque. We shall
avail ourselves of Mr. Macfarlane’s communica-
cations, before we proceed to those of other ob-
servers :

“On their journeys, the devidjis always choose
for halting-places spots that abound in bushes or
brakes, where such are to be found; the camels
are left at liberty to browse, and their drivers
smoke their pipes or go to sleep. There is no
danger of the camels escaping or wandering to any
| distance; they keep close to the spot where. they
| are set at liberty, and can be rallied and: formed

———————— tlt
oan
_. = :

Cae es

: in a line in a moment. [| have more than once
4 seen this done by the mere voice. When they
4 rest for the night, they generally kneel down in a

circle ; it is rar rely considered necessary to tie one

of their fore legs at the bend of the knee. “They

always repose on their knees; and a curious thing

in relation to their natural habits 3 is, that I never
it

4

THE CAMEL. 217

_ saw one of them throw himself, even for a moment,

a ‘on his side. During the night’s rest, the devidjis
generally sleep in the midst of the circle formed
by the recumbent camels; if it be a rainy winter
night, they will pitch a little tent, but (1 speak of
Asia Minor) in this genial climate they nearly
always repose like their quiet beasts, a da belle
étotle. J once invaded a primitive dormitory of
this sort in a curious manner. It was at Boudja,
a village (a few miles from Smyrna) where many ~
of the Franks have their country houses. I was
hurrying home on a very dark night; at the en-
trance of the village and in the shadow of a gar.
den wall, I stumbled over something which proved
to be a young camel (they accompany their dams
on their journeys almost as soon as they are born);
and, going forward, I stumbled again over a sack,
and fell headlong through an opening of the ‘ do.
mestic circle’ into the midst of it, and upon the
sleeping devidjis. I suppose they were surprised
at the intrusion, but both men and beasts were very
civil; the latter, indeed, never moved, and seemed
as passive as if I had been falling over roots of
trees.”

Camels are formed by nature to endure great
variations of temperature. ‘The winds of the des-
ert are sometimes exceedingly keen ; and, even in
Asia Minor, the winter cold is occasionally very
severe. We add one more quotation from Mr.
Macfarlane’s interesting letter :

“ The winter of 1827-8 was the coldest that had
been known for many years in Asia Minor; yet,
on the coldest days, when I, though a native of the
north, have been shivering and suffering, I have

=

218 NATURAL HISTORY.

often seen the camels, at nightfall, bivouacking
near Smyrna, on the banks of the Meles (Homer’s
river—as insignificant as is, or was, Fleet-ditch in

summer, but a broad, brawling stream in winter),

there to pass the inclement night in the open air.
4 Their own instinct teaches them to contract their
circle and kneel close together, and their masters

a merely cover their loins with a material as primi-
tive as their modes of life and encamping. It isa
coarse, thick sort of cloth, always dyed red, made
of camel’s wool, mixed with sheep’s wool and goat’s

e 33 =
hair. p

Halt of Camels—DENON.

The chief repose of a caravan is in the evening.

Camels on their march never feed at their ease in

the daytime; and nature seems to require that.

they should have their principal meal, and a few

| hours’ rest, from a little before sunset to several
_ hours before sunrise. The principal halts in Syria
i : and Arabia are, therefore, for two hours at noon,
| when every one endeavours to sleep, and from an
| hour or so before the sun goes down till the morn-
i. ing twilight.* When the caravan is about to pro-

* Burckhardt’s Syria.

Ee

THE CAMEL. 219

ceed over a Steril district, the drivers, several
- days before they start, give the camels three times
the usual quantity of dhourra (millet), which they
force down their throats, and the construction of
the stomach enables the animal to ruminate upon
this during a very long march.* The expense of
maintaining these valuable creatures is remarkably
little: a cake of barley, a few dates, a handful of
beans, will suffice, in addition to the hard and
prickly shrubs which they find in every district
but the very wildest of the desert. They are par-
ticularly fond of those vegetable productions which
other animals would never touch, such as plants
which are like spears and dagsers in comparison
with the needles of the thistle, and which often
pierce the incautious traveller’s boot. He might
wish such thorns eradicated from the earth, if he
did not observe the camel contentedly browsing
upon them ; for he thus learns that Providence has
made nothing in vain. The sant-tree is among
these substances, and in this the camel especially
delights. These hard shrubs probably contain
Jarge quantities of saline matter. In the Great
Desert, Riley saw the camels crop off the thorn-
bushes as thick as a man’s finger. Their teeth
are particularly adapted for such a diet. Differ-
ing from all other ruminating tribes, they have two
strong cutting teeth in the upper jaw; and of the
six grinding teeth, one on each side, in the same
jaw, has a crooked form: their canine teeth, of
which they have two in each jaw, are very strong ;
and in the lower jaw the two external cutting teeth
have a pointed form, and the foremost of the grind.
* Burckhardt’s Nubia.

a
220 NATURAL HISTORY.

ers is also pointed and crooked. ‘They are thus
provided witha most formidable apparatus for cut-
ting and tearing the hardest vegetable substance.
But the camel is, at the same time, organized so
as to graze upon the finest herbage, and browse
upon the most delicate leaves; for, his upper lip
being divided, he is enabled to nip off the tender
shoots, and turn them into his mouth with the
greatest facility. Whether the sustenance, there-
fore, which he finds be of. the coarsest or the soft-
est kind, he is equally prepared to be satisfied with,
and to enjoy it. In the desert, from Aleppo to
Bagdad, Mr. Parsons occasionally passed through
little flowery vales, covered with the choicest clo-
ver, where the camels grazed; and in crossing
some inconsiderable hills, which, though stony,
were not bare of grass, besides producing rose-
mary, thyme, camphor, marjoram, origanum, and
southernwood, the camels seemed delighted to
snatch a mouthful from these fragrant shrubs by
way of variety, though the horses would not touch
them. ‘The young and fresh leaves of the acacia-
trees are peculiarly grateful to them ; and the Be.
douins, spreading a straw mat under the tree, beat
its boughs with long sticks, and sell these tender
leaves for camel’s food.* The Nubians were one
year without any produce from their date-trees,
because the Mamelukes, in a time of great scarcity,
fed their camels upon palm-leaves. ‘The camel is
particularly fond of a plant, the silphium of anti-
quity, which was valued as a sovereign remedy for
all complaints of the human body, from the time of
Herodotus to that of Pliny. This plant produces
* Burckhardt’s Arabia. 3

es THE CAMEL. 228

very fatal effects upon all quadrupeds; but tne
camels greedily devour it, as did the sheep of old,
according to the description of Arrian. The
camel is therefore muzzled when he travels through
the countries in which silphium abounds, the Cyre-
naica; and, lest the drivers should allow him to
taste it, and he should thus be destroyed, an addi-
tional sum is charged for the hire of the animal
through those pe as a compensation for this
chance of injury.* The camel will, indeed, eat
every vegetable substance ; and it is afhrmed that,
in cases of need, he will even distend his stomach
with coals. The African caravans carry coals
through the desert; and Riley states, that in the.
absence of all other food, the camels received a
supply of this singular foodoncea day. They are
partly enabled to endure these extraordinary priva-
_ tions by the absorption into their system of the fa‘
of the hump.T

The long establishment of commercial inter-
course in Asia by means of caravans, and the ne-
cessity of accommodating large bodies of Mo.
hammedan pilgrims from all parts of the east to
Mecca, have caused the erection, from time to time,
of large reservoirs of water in almost every fre.
quented road. In the vicinities of the towns, these
reservoirs, which are called birkets, are usually
supplied from aqueducts. At these convenient
places the caravans always halt. The Bedouins
and ether wandering tribes sometimes seize upon
these wells, and extort a tribute for the permission

* See Beechey’s Northem Coast of Africa, p. 410.
t See Dictionnaire Classique d’Histoire N aturelle ; art. Cha-
meau, by M, A. Desmoulins,
L 2

222 NATURAL HISTORY.

tbe

—_
——S> = Se
SSSSS——__— =

amels Watering—DENON.

to draw water. As soon, however, as a caravéaus
arrives upon the desert, the supply of water be-
comes a matter of chance. The accustomed fount-
ains are often dried up; and the izavellers have
to journey forward, in the hopes of discovering
some other well at which they may refresh their
camels and replenish their water-skins.

In a journey with a caravan, it is essentially ne-
cessary to carry a considerable quantity of water.
Sometimes a portion of the camels bear nothing
but water-skins; but oftener every camel carries
one skin in addition to his ordinary lading. “No
idea can be formed by Europeans,” says Burck-
hardt, “of the quantity of water necessary for
drinking, cooking, and washing, during a journey
through these countries ; but more particularly to
allay the thirst of the traveller, whose palate is
continually parched by the effects of the fiery
ground and air; who has been confined, perhaps,
for several days to a short allowance of water, and

THE CAMEL. 223

“who lives upon food which, consisting of farina.
ceous preparations and » putter, i is calculated to ex.
cite thirst in the highest degree. It is a general
custom in the caravans in these parts (Nubia), as
well as in the Arabian deserts, never to drink ex-
cept when the whole caravan halts for a few min-
utes for that purpose. . . . . ‘L'odrink while
others do not exposes a man to be considered ef-
feminate, and to the opprobrious saying, that ‘his
mouth is tied to that of the water-skin.? . . .
Travellers in these journeys drink a great quan-
tity of water when it is plentiful ; I do not exagger.
ate when I say that I have often drunk in the
afternoon, at one draught, as much as would fill
two common water-bottles. . . . The usual
computation is, that a middle-sized skin or gerbe,
holding about fifty or sixty pounds of water, will
serve a man for three days.”* Captain Lyon
says, that when horses travel with a caravan in
Africa, it is necessary to provide a camel for each
horse, for the sole purpose of carrying water. It
would appear from these passages (and such is the
fact), that of the water which the camels carry, no
part is allowed to themselves. The men and
horses have the advantage of their patient drudge.
ry ; and they are left, in almost every case, to the
precarious supply which they may find at the fount-
ains which are so thinly scattered over the des-
erts. Upon the subject of the camel’s power of
abstinence from water, there have been many ex.
aggerations, which Burckhardt ascribes to the cre-
dulity of those travellers “who draw their infor-
mation only from bragging Arabians or Moors.’
* Burckhardt’s Nubia, p. 428.

i

7 oe
224 NATURAL HISTORY.

This power, however, is extraordinary eno
excite our wonder and admiration, without any as-
sistance from fanciful descriptions. The camel
often travels three or four days without water,
drinking fifty, sixty, or even a hundred pounds
weight when he has an opportunity; and the best
camels for transport will sometimes endure a thirst
of ten or twelve days, though many of them perish
under this privation. When we see what the man
andthe horse require in those arid countries, such

a power in the camel must appear one of the most

remarkable provisions of nature.

The camel’s stomach, when considered ck ref-
erence to. its anatomical construction—a knowl.
edge of which is necessary to understand the ca.
pacity of the animal to endure hunger and thirst,
particularly the latter, and which, without such
knowledge, would appear little short of miraculous
—exhibits a mechanism so admirable, so curious, so
perfect in all its parts, and, withal, so delicate, that
we cannot hesitate at once to consider it as beauti-
ful an evidence of Almighty wisdom as any of the
mechanical contrivances of the human body, such
as the hand or the eye, wie which we are more
familiar.

|
THE CAMEL. 925

CHAPTER IX.
THE CAMEL—( Continued). ie

Tue habits of mankind in the East have under-
gone less change during many centuries than Ku.
ropeans would at first sight think possible. Many _
of the descriptions of the sacred historians find
an exact parallel in the narratives of modern trav-
ellers. The agriculture and the commercial in-
tercourse of the Oriental nations are as little
changed as their food, their dress, and their man-
ners; and their intellectual progress during the
last two thousand years, if it has not been ata
stand, has been so slow as to be hardly perceptible. -
This perpetuation of the habits of a remote anti-
quity may be very much attributed to the geograph-
ical features, the climate, soil, and natural pro-
ductions of the countries. For instance, in a soil
and temperature peculiarly adapted to the ripen-
ing of fruit, the date would still flourish as it flour-
ished in the time of the prophets ; and while the
people could gather with little trouble this great
article of sustenance, they would have little motive
to cultivate grain, which much of their soil is un-
fitted to produce. Thus the improvements of agri-
culture, demanding and rewarding improvements
in various other of the useful arts, have had no
place among them.

- Their vast deserts, producing but few of the ne-

‘t
et
:?

226 NATURAL HISTORY.

_cessaries, and none of the luxuries of life, rendered,

in the earliest ages, an extensive commerce the
necessary condition of pleasurable existence. And
commerce was made easy by the camel, the native
of these arid plains ; through whose means they
have been traversed with comparative facility from
the earliest times. But navigation by the “ship

of the desert” did not require, and was not capa-

ble of, that gradual improvement which has trans-
formed the frail raft or rude canoe into a floating

palace,

“ Arm’d with thunder, clad with wings,”

the crown and triumph of ages, of thought and la-
bour, and the greatest conquest which the mind of
man has achieved over the difficulties in which,

for the development of his wonderful powers, it has
pleased God to place him.

Thus, while the improvements of European com.
merce, itself the creature of yesterday, have at
length succeeded in bringing the cotton of India to
be manufactured in England into cloth, and have
returned it to the Hindoos cheaper than these peo-
ple could prepare it for themselves, with all their
abundant supply of human labour at its lowest
price, the caravans of Egypt and Arabia are still
carrying on the traffic of the age of Solomon, with

scarcely any change either in the articles of the _

commerce or the manner in which it is pursued.
The caravans of Egypt bring to Cairo ostrich feath-
ers, gum, gold-dust, and ivory, from Abyssinia and
the countries beyond it; while those of Arabia ex-
change there the spices, coffee, perfumes, and mus.
lin of Hindostan. By means of caravans, the pro-

me ee

THE CAMEL. . 22F

ductions even of China are distributed, at the pres-
ent day, through central Asia; while, by the ex-
tension of the camel over Northern Africa, the ar-
ticles which are sold in the markets of Timbuctoo
are exchanged for the equally valuable commodi-
ties of Samarcand and Thibet. There are cara.
vans trading between Cairo and the interior of Af-
rica, and penetrating far beyond the limits of mod-
ern European discovery, which are wholly employ-
ed in the commerce of slaves, the most disgraceful
traffic by which one portion of the human race has
ever inflicted injury upon another. Burckhardt
describes the treatment which the slaves of the Af-
rican caravans experience as “rather kind than
otherwise.” He says, “they are seldom flogged,
and are well fed.” This is before they enter upon
the desert; for, as confinement injures their health,
-when they remain in the towns through which they
pass, and as the negroes look upon the houses as
prisons, the traders allow them, in these inhabited
places, a little liberty. But after the caravan
reaches the open country, they are treated in a
manner at which humanity shudders. “On the
journey they are tied to a long pole, one end of
which is fastened to a camel’s saddle, and the other,
which is forked, is passed on each side of the slave’s
neck, and tied behind with a strong cord, so as to
prevent him from drawing out his head; in addi-
tion to this, his right hand is also fastened to the
pole at a short distance from the head, thus leaving
only his legs and left arm at liberty; in this man.
ner he marches the whole day behind the camel ;
at night he is taken from the pole and put in irons.””*
* Burckhardt’s Nubia, p. 335.

228 NATURAL HISTORY.

And yet this horrible mode of transport is not so
tt bad as the abominations of a slave-ship, in which
_ hundreds of miserable wretches are crammed into a

hold, till they die of utter exhaustion or disease, and
avarice is deprived of its victims. The slave-tra-
ders of the caravans are Mohammedans; the Eu-
ropean slave-merchants call themselves Christians.
The infidel carries his victim to receive the com-
paratively light yoke of domestic service; the
Christian dooms his prey to the unutterable ‘hor.
rors of West Indian bondage.
The annual pilgrimage to Mecca, enjoined by the
Mohammedan religion, has materially contributed
| to keep up and extend the commercial intercourse
a | of the people of Asia. In this point of view, the
ceremony, though one of superstitious origin, and
accompanied with many absurd rites, has greatly
benefited those countries which are far distant
from each other, and the inhabitants of which,
without such excitement, would seldom have any
communication. The pilgrimage to Mecca is an
institution which unites all the Mohammedans, from
Abyssinia to India, in a common bond of religious
observance and commercial traffic ; and it has thus
had an extraordinary influence upon the habits of
that large body of mankind who are followers of
the doctrines of the Koran. In the present day,
the hadj or pilgrimage has gradually decreased in |
numbers; a circumstance which is attributed both
to a growing indifference of the Mohammedans to
their religion, and an increase of expense attend-
| ing the journey. The camel sustains such an im-
fii portant part in these extraordinary journeys, that
we shall attempt to trace the course of a single

x? mo
Pie THE CAMEL. 229

caravan of pilgrims; and as that of Cairo is one
of the most important, having, as well as the Syr-
ian, the distinction of a sacred camel, and as it
has been described by ancient as well as modern
writers, a rapid sketch of its march may be given.
We may thus develop, in a picturesque way, some
of the remarkable circumstances attending the
ress of a vast number of camels, laden ae 1e
merchandise of unexplored regions : some ate
“ Barbaric pearl and gold,” others carrying water.
skins ; and all exposed to perish in a desert, at
the command of avarice or of enthusiasm, patiently
doing the bidding of those who make this perilous
journey, “some to Mammon, some to Mohammed,”
as old Purchas expresses it. In the words of the
same quaint writer, “let us desire the reader to
have patience, and goe along, on this pilgrimage,
with one of these caravans, thorow these Arabian
deserts, to Mecca and Medina.”

The hadj caravan starts from Cairo twenty days
after the great fast of the Ramadhan is ended.
Purchas has given an elaborate description of its
ancient splendours. “ The caravan,” he says, “is
divided into three parts ; the foreward, the maine
bataille, and the rereward. The fosewena contain-
eth about a third part of the people. Within a
quarter of a mile followeth the maine bataille, with
their ordnance, gunners, and archers; the chief
physician, with his ointments and medicines for the
sick, and camels for them to ride on. Next goeth
the fairest camel that may be found in the Turk’s
dominions, decked with cloth of gold and silk, and
-cearrieth a little chest, in form of the Israelitish ark,
containing in it the Alcoran, all written with great

U

rf

ee

wae

230 NATURAL HISTORY.

letters of gold, bound between two tables of mass-
ive gold. This chest is covered with silke during
the voyage; but, at their entering into Mecca and
Medina, it is covered with cloth of gold adorned
with jewels. This camel is compassed about with
Arabian singers and musicians, singing alway, and
playing upon instruments. After this follow fif-
teene other most faire camels, every one carrying
one of the above said vestures, being covered from

top to toe with silke. Behind these goe the twentie ~

camels which carry the capiaine’s money and pro-
vision. After followeth the standard of the Great
Signior, accompanied with musicians and souldiers ;
and behind these, lesse than a mile, followeth the
rereward, the greatest part pilgrimes: the mar-
chants, for secur itie, going before ; for in this voy-
age it is needfull and usuall, that the captaines be-
stow presents, garments, a turbans upon the
chiefe Arabians, to give them free passage, receiv-
ing sometimes, by pilferings, some damage notwith-
standing.”

Mr. Parsons, who saw the pilgrim caravan set
out from Cairo about forty years ago, has given a
programme of the procession, drawn up with all
the precision of a herald, and which occupies ten

pages of his quarto work. The cavalcade was six
hours in passing him. ‘The most striking appear-

ance to a European must have been the camels, in
every variety of splendid trappings, laden with pro-
visions, and clothes, and cookery apparatus, and
water-skins, and tents, and artillery, and holy
sheiks, and Mamelukes. There were. camels
“ with two brass field-pieces each ;”” others “ with
bells and streamers ;”

others swath, men beating

a

THE CAMEL. 231
kettle-drums ;”” others “covered with purple vel-
vet ;” others “ with men walking by their sides,
playing on flutes and flagelets;” others “ hand-
somely ornamented about their necks, their bridles
being studded with silver, intermixed with glass
beads of all colours, and ostrich feathers on their
foreheads ;” and, last of all, “the sacred camel, an
extraordinary large camel, with a fine bridle stud-
ded with jewels and gold, and led by two holy
sheiks in green, a square house or chapel on his
back.” © In addition to these camel *splefidours,
there were horses with every variety of caparison ;
Mamelukes, and pikemen, and janizaries, and agas,
and the emir hadgy (commander of the pilgrim|
age), in robes of satin; to say nothing of number-
less “ buffoons playing many pranks.”

Differing from the usual practice of commercial
- caravans, the pilgrimage is performed chiefly by
night. ‘The caravan generally moves about four
o’clock in the afternoon, and travels without stop-
ping till an hour or two after sunrise. <A large
supply of torches is carried from Cairo, to be lighted
during the hours of darkness. ‘The Bedouins, who
convey provisions for the troops, travel by day only,
and in advance of the caravan. The watering-
places on the route are regularly established. Each
is supplied with a large tank, and protected by
soldiers, who reside in a castle by the well through-
out the year. On parts of the route the wells are
frequent and the water good; but on others three
days of the journey frequently intervene between
one watering-place and another, and the fountain
is often brackish. When the Cairo caravan is
completely assembled, and the formalities which we

i rt
a ,

232 NATURAL HISTORY.

have just described are gone through, the great
body of travellers begin to move, the stations of
the different parties of hadjys, according to their
provinces and towns, being appointed and rigidly
observed throughout the march. ‘This order is de-
termined by the geographical proximity of the place
from which each party comes. At Adjeroud,
where the Egyptian caravan halts on the second
day’s march, it is supplied with water from Suez ;
and here it reposes a day and a night, to prepare
for a férced march of three days and two nights,
through a region where there is no water, the desert
of El T'yh, which nearly extends from the head of
one gulf of the Red Sea to the other ; that is, from
Suez to Akaba. ‘The hadj route is circuitous. It
is here that the privations both of men and quad.
rupeds commence. ‘The splendid trappings of the
camels, their velvets and their bells, have lost their
attraction ; but their power of endurance becomes
the safety of the pilgrims: while the richly capar-
isoned horse, impatient of thirst and more easily
subdued by fatigue, is more frequently a burden to
the caravan than an advantage. ‘The route of the
Egyptian caravan, after it passes the Akaba, lies
by the shores of the Red Sea for nearly six hun-
dred miles ; and, therefore, it cannot properly be
said at any time after the first ten days’ march to

be upon the desert, as the Syrian caravan is for

thirty days. But its difficulties are more numer-
ous; and it has to pass regions quite as arid and
inhospitable. Every part of Arabia is covered
with sandy plains ; and, when the mountain steeps.
are crossed, the long extended valleys rarely offer
water. The Arabic language is rich in words ex-

THE CAMEL. 233

pressing every variety of desert, differing from
each other by very slight shades of meaning : thus
they have terms descriptive of a plain, a plain in
the mountain, a plain covered with herbs, a naked
sandy desert, a stony desert, a desert with little
spots of pasturage, a desert without water.* A\l-
though the caravan route from Cairo to Mecca pre-
sents, with the exception of the desert El Tyh,
none of those enormous wastes, like the great
southern desert of Arabia, * where the Arabs have
only the sun and the stars to direct their way ;”
nor is, like the Libyan desert, “ a sea without wa-
ters, an earth without solidity, disdaining to hold a
footprint as a testimony of subjection,”’} there are
many tracts, as well as the desert from Suez to
Akaba, in the forty days’ journey, which offer to
the pilgrim abundance of fatigue and suffering. If

- water fail, as it sometimes does, even at the wells
at particularly dry seasons ; if the water-skins evap-
orate more quickly then they ordinarily do, the
camel’s power of endurance is severely tried, for
his wants are the last attended to. Happyare the
pilgrims if the rain of the mountains have filled
the banks of some little river. Even the much-
enduring camels, at the sight of water after many
days’ abstinence, break the halters by which they
are led, and, in rushing or stumbling down the banks,
throw off their loads, and occasion infinite disor-
der.{ Mr. Buckingham has, however, described a
scene, in which the patience of the camel is con-
trasted in a remarkable way with the eagerness of
the horse :

* See Humboldt’s Voyage, tom. vi. note to p. 67.
t Purchas. © } Burchardt’s Nubia, p. 368.

U 2

a

234 NATURAL HISTORY.

“Tt was near midnight when we reached a marshy
ground, in which a clear stream was flowing along,
through beds of tall and thick rushes, but so hidden
by these that the noise of its flow was heard long
before the stream itself could be seen. From the
length of the march and the exhausting heat of the
atmosphere, even at night, the horses were exceed-
ingly thirsty; their impatient restlessness, evinced
by their tramping, neighing, and eager impatience
to rush all to one particular point, gave us, indeed,
the first indications of our approach to water, which
was perceptible to their stronger scent long before
it was even heard by us. On reaching the brink
of this stream, for which purpose we had been for-

cibly turned aside, by the ungovernable fury of the ~

animals, to the southward of our route, the banks
were found to be so high above the surface of the
water that the horses could not reach it to drink.
Some, more impatient than the rest, plunged them-
selves and their riders at once into the current ; and,
after being led swimming to a less elevated part
of the bank, over which they could mount, were
extricated with considerable difficulty; while. two
of the horses of the caravan, who were more heavi-
ly laden than the others, by carrying the baggage

as well as the persons of their riders, were drown-

ed. The stream was narrow but deep, and had a
soft muddy bottom, in which another of the horses
became so fastly stuck that he was suffocated in a
few minutes. ‘The camels marched patiently along
the edge of the bank, as well as those persons of
the caravan who were provided with skins and other
vessels containing small supplies of water; but the
horses could not, by all the power of their riders,

:
:
:

THE CAMEL. 239

*

_ be kept from the stream any more than the crowd
_of thirsty pilgrims, who, many of them having no
small vessels to dip up the water from the brook,
followed the example of the impatient horses, and
plunged at once into the current....... This
scene, which, amid the obscurity of the night, the
cries of the animals, the indistinct, and, perhaps,
exaggerated apprehensions of danger, from a total-
ly unexpected cause, had assumed an almost awful
character, lasted for upward of an hour.’*

The extraordinary scent of the camel enables him
to discover water at a great distance; and thus, in
the wildest regions of the desert, the caravan is

-_ often preserved from destruction by this instinct.

in the neighbourhood of wells, such as are found in
the hadj routes, the camels, after passing rocky
‘districts, that fatigue them more than several days’
_ march upon the plains, surfeit themselves with wa.
ter. ‘This renders them still weaker, and they often
perish. Camels’ carcasses are as frequently found
‘in the accustomed roads as in the deserts ; and, when
the pilgrimage leaves Mecca, the very air is cor-
rupt with the bodies of camels that have died of ex-
haustion after performing the journey.t On the
road, when a camel -falls, he is usually killed ac-
cording to the Mohammedan fashion, which is to
turn his head towards Mecca and cut his throat.
On such occasions the Arabs wait in savage im-
patience the signal of the owner, ready to plunge
their knives into the poor animal and tear off a
portion of the flesh. At seasons of great privation,
the water which is found in the cells of the camel’s
stomach is eagerly swallowed by the Arabs.

* Buckingham’s Mesopotamia, vol. ii., p. 8.
t Burckhardt’s Arabia.

236 NATURAL HISTORY.

_ The fourth, fifth, and sixth-days’ marches of the
Cairo hadj, through the deserts of Tyh, are ex-
ceedingly exhausting and dangerous. The weary
pilgrims halt for a day and a night at the castle of
Nakhel, in the middle of the desert, where they re-
plenish their water-skins; but they march again
in the evening of the seventh day, and, finding no
water in their route, halt not till the morning of the
tenth, when they have reached the plain and castle
of Akaba. ‘This district presents fearful monu-
ments of the sufferings of the caravan. “ Past the
Akaba,” says Burckhardt, “near the head of the
Red Sea, the bones of dead camels are the only,
guides of the pilgrim through the wastes of sand.”
It is, perhaps, rarely that the pilgrims perish with
thirst on the road, unless some of them wander

from the main body ; or the caravan, losing its way,

overshoots the day’s station. Where there are no
landmarks but those which are formed by the traces

_of former devastation—by “ the bones of dead cam-

els’”—such a circumstance is not difficult to hap-
pen even to the most experienced guides. The wa-
ter-skins are, in such cases, emptied, and horses and
men perish in a state of miserable despair, while the

wearied camels drop with exhaustion. Probably

these afflictions happen more frequently to private
caravans than to those of the pilgrimage. Burck-
hardt relates an interesting story of such an event
in the Nubian desert, which beautifully illustrates
the surprising instinct of the camel. It was told
to him by a man who had himself suffered all the
pangs of death: |

“In the month of August, a small caravan pre-
pared to set out from Berber to Daraou. They

THE CAMEL. 237

consisted of five merchants and about thirty slaves,
with a proportionate number of camels. Afraid of
the robber Naym, who at that time was in the habit
of waylaying travellers about the well of Nedjeym,
and who had constant intelligence of the departure
of every caravan from Berber, they determined to
take a more eastern road, by the well Owareyk.
They had hired an Ababde guide, who conducted
them in safety to that place, but who lost his way
from thence northward, the route being very unfre-
quented. After five days’ march in the mountains
their stock of water was exhausted, nor did they
know where they were. ‘They resolved, therefore,
to direct their course towards the setting sun, ho-
ping thus to reach the Nile. After two days’ thirst,
fifteen slaves and one of the merchants died ; an-
other of them, an Ababde, who had ten camels with
him, thinking that the camels might know better
than their masters where water was to be found,
desired his comrades to tie him fast upon the sad.
dle of his strongest camel, that he might not fall
down from weakness; and thus he parted from
them, permitting his camels to take their own way :
but neither the man nor his camel were ever heard
of afterward. On the eighth day after leaving
Owareyk, the survivers came in sight of the mount-
ains of Shigre, which they immediately recognised ;
but their strength was quite exhausted, and neither
men nor beasts were able to move any farther.
Lying down under a rock, they sent two of their
servants, with the two strongest remaining camels,
in search of water. Before these two men could
reach the mountain, one of them dropped off his
camel, deprived of speech, and able only to move

| 238 NATURAL HISTORY.

it his hands to his comrade as a signal that he desired
* to be left to his fate. The surviver then continued
a his route; but such was the effect of thirst upon
ie him that his eyes grew dim and he lost the road,

though he had often travelled over it before, and
had been perfectly acquainted with it. Having
wandered about for a long time, he alighted under
the shade of a tree, and tied the camel to one of
its branches; the beast, however, smelt the water
(as the Arabs express it), and, wearied as it was,
broke its halter, and set off galloping furiously in
the direction of the spring, which, as it afterward
appeared, was at half an hour’s distance. The
man, well understanding the camel’s action, endeay-
oured to follow its footsteps, but could only move
afew yards; he fell exhausted on the ground, and
was about to breathe his last, when Providence led
that way, from a neighbouring encampment, a
Bisharye Bedouin, who, by throwing water on the
man’s face, restored him to his senses. They then
went hastily together to the water, filled the skins,
and, returning to the caravan, had the good fortune
| to find the sufferers still alive. ‘The Bisharye re-
; ceived a slave for histrouble. My informer, ana-
4 tive of Yembo, in Arabia, was the man whose camel
4 discovered the spring; and he added the remark-
able circumstance, that the youngest slave bore the
thirst better than the rest, and that, while the ~
grown-up boys all died, the children reached
Egypt in safety.”
. The phenomenon of the mirage excites in the
| pilgrim of the deserts those alternations of hope
and disappointment which add to the miseries of
| his actual situation. He sees before him lakes of

THE CAMEL. 239

water, which are gone the instant he arrives at the
spot where he fancied they offered their refresh-
ment to his feverish lips. The Arabs are familiar
with this remarkable appearance, and they are sel-
dom deceived by it; although, if the mirage and a
real stream could be seen at the same time, it
would be difficult to distinguish the reality from the
delusion.* The guides of the European traveller
often amuse themselves by calling to him that wa-
ter is in sight, when they are upon the most thirsty
spots of a sandy or gravelly plain. Burckhardt
has described the mirage with his usual felicity :+
* During the whole day’s march we were surround-
ed on all sides by lakes of mirage, called by the
Arabs, Serab. Its colour was of the purest azure,

and so clear that the shadows of the mountains ©

which bordered the horizon were reflected in it
with the greatest precision, and the delusion of its
being a sheet of water was thus rendered still more
perfect. I had often seen the mirage in Syria and
Egypt, but always found it of a whitish colour, rath-
er resembling a morning mist, seldom lying steady
on the plain, but in continual vibration; but here
it was very different, and had the most perfect re-
semblance to water. The great dryness of the air

and earth in this desert may be the cause of the dif-

ference. The appearance of water approached
also much nearer than in Syria and Egypt, being
often not more than two hundred paces from us,
whereas | had never seen it before at a distance of
less than half a mile. There were at one time
about a dozen of these false lakes around us, each
separated from the other, and, for the most part, in
* Lyon, p. 347. + Nubia, p. 193.

240 NATURAL HISTORY.

the low grounds.” The mirage is caused by the
extraordinary refraction which the rays of the sun
undergo in passing through masses of air in con-
tact with a surface greatly heated. These atmo-
spheric delusions are not confined to the appear-
ance of water in the desert. ‘The traveller, faint-
ing beneath a burning sun, sees a tree in the dis-
tance sufficiently large for him to find a shade be-
neath its boughs. He quickens his pace, hoping
to enjoy halfan hour of refreshing coolness before
his camels shall have passed. The tree is really
a miserable shrub, that does not afford shade enough
to shelter one of his hands. This magnifying of
objects is produced by the slight vapour which rises
when the heat is greatest. When the sun gleams

-on the sandhills, they appear at an immense dis-

tance ; the traveller hopes that his camels may be
spared the pain of crossing these slippery ascents ;
when, in a few minutes, he is close upon hex
sees a man or a camel within a stone’s throw toil-
ing to the top.* As the sun ascends towards the
zenith, and the earth and the currents of air as-
sume different temperatures, the phenomena of the
mirage present numerous modifications. Hum-
boldt states, that in the plains of South America,
where the air is very dry, he often saw the images
of troops of wild oxen suspended in the air long

before the eye could see the oxen themselves ; and >

the small currents of air were of sucha variable

temperature, that the legs of some appeared to rest

upon the ground, while others were elevated above

it. In Arabia, Niebuhr observed the image of an

animal reversed before he saw the direct image.
* See Lyon, p. 347.

4

erry

. THE CAMEL. 241

Sometimes towers and large masses of apparent
buildings are seen upon the horizon, which disap-
pear at intervals, without the traveller being able to
decide upon the true forms of the objects, which are
probably little sandhills; beyond the ordinary range
of vision.* All these phenomena are modifications
of the mirage, though the name is generally ap-
plied to the unreal lakes of the desert. ‘The Per-
sian and Arabian poets make frequent allusion to
these magical effects of terrestrial refraction.

Such delusive appearances must have a tendency
to fill the mind of the inexperienced traveller with
a vague and somewhat awful wonder. Upon a
sandy surface, too, the stillness of the desert is par-
ticularly impressive. Passing over such a soil, the
camel’s tread produces scarcely any sound. Capt.
Lyon says, “I have sometimes walked at night
_ from the kafflé (caravan), and have experienced
a sensation ] am unable to describe, as 1 felt the
wind blow past me, and heard the sound which my
figure caused me to make by arresting its prog-
ress.” It is at such moments that the European
traveller may think of the solemn denunciation of
the prophet against Babylon; and may fancy for
a while that he is the only tenant of the sandy
wastes: “ The sea is come up upon Babylon, she is
covered with the multitude of the waves thereof: her
cities are a desolation, a dry land, anda wilderness,
a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any
son of man pass thereby.”t Of the tediousness of
a journey through these arid regions there can be
no doubt ; and Mr. Buckingham seems to have felt

* Humboldt’s Voyages, liv. vi., chap. xvii.
+ Jeremiah.
X

)

242 NATURAL HISTORY.

the full force of its monotony: “In walking my
horse a gentle pace, if I mounted the last in the
caravan, I could gain the head of it in two hours,
though our line extended nearly two miles in length;
when, as was the practice of most of the other
horsemen of the party, we dismounted on the grass,
suffered our horses to feed there, and either lay
down or smoked a pipe for nearly an hour, until
the caravan had all passed us again. This was
repeated at every similar interval; so that, in an
uninteresting part of the country, where there was
no picturesque landscape to charm the sight, not a
tree to relieve the monotonous outline of the hills,
nor sufficient verdure to clothe their rocky sides ;
where either we were lighted only by the stars, or
scorched by the sun an “hour after ‘its rising, its
tediousness may easily be conceived.” And yet
even the desert has its pleasures: when the cara-
yan reaches some wished-for fountain, and finds a
patch of verdure or a few shrubs after many hours
of privation. Major Denham has prettily described
a scene of this nature: ‘“ The day had been oppres-
sively hot ; my companions were sick and fatigued,
and we dreaded the want of water. A fine dust,
arising from a light clayey and sandy soil, had also
increased our sufferings: the exclamations of the
Arab who first discovered the wells were indeed
music to our ears; and, after satisfying my own ~
thirst, with that of my weary animals, I laid me
down by one of the distant wells, far from my com-
panions ; and these moments of tranquillity, the
freshness of the air, with the melody of the hun-
dred songsters that were perched among the creep-
ing plants, whose flowers threw an aromatic odour

THE CAMEL. 243

all around, were a relief scarcely to be described.”
The happiness of such a contrast must naturally
be great; andso many writers have described this
pleasure, that the idea has passed from the poeti-
cal into the popular language even of the West ;
and thus the recollection of an interval of joy
amid a life of suffering,

“ The greenest spot
In memory’s waste,”

is the Oasis in the desert.

And yet to an imaginative mind, stored with
knowledge and ardent in the pursuit of new ob-
jects of research, even the dreariest wilds of the
desert have their charm. Burckhardt, according
to Captain Beechey, “ has frequently been heard to
declare that his most pleasant hours in travelling
had been passed in the desert ;” and Captain Beech-
ey, himself an adventurous traveller, has well ex-
plained this. “If the desert have terrors peculiar
to itself, it also has its peculiar pleasures. There
is something imposing, we may say sublime, in the
idea of unbounded space which it occasionally pre-
sents; and every trifling object which appears above
its untenanted surface, assumes an interest which
- we should not, on other occasions, attribute to ob-
jects of much greater importance. The little ro-
-mance which its stillness and solitude encourage,
is, at the same time, grateful to the feelings ; and
one may here dream delightfully of undisturbed
tranquillity and independence, and of freedom from
all the cares, the follies, and the vices of the world.”
A principal source of this calm of the mind, when
surrounded by real hardships and cheerless soli-
tudes, must spring from that feeling which is one of

re
“¥
244 NATURAL HISTORY. —

the most elevating of all the various trains of hu-
man thought, the consciousness of an earnest de-
termination to struggle with difficulties. Whether
the privations of the uncivilized or the crosses of
the social life are to be overcome, to meet the evil,
whatever it be,
“‘ Nor bate a jot

Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer

Right onward ;”
this is in itself a triumph ; and the world can give
nothing better than those moments when a man
feels that he has looked dangers and annoyances in
the face, and that he shall surmount them.

The hot wind of the deserts has been described
as producing the most fatal effects, as suffocating
men and beasts in an instant. ‘This is one of the
exaggerations which attach to such remarkable
phenomena, they being generally described by pe
sons who have only heard of their results. Burck-
hardt, who seldom relates anything but of his own
knowledge, was very anxious to prove the truth of
these relations; and, according to the accounts
which he had from the Arabs, as well as from his
own experience, the evil, though a serious one, is
not so tremendous as travellers in general have .
pretended. .

“JT again inquired, as | had often done before,
whether my companions had often experienced the
semoum (which we translate by the ‘ poisonous blast
of the desert,’ but which is nothing more than a
violent southeast wind). ‘They answered in the
affirmative, but none had ever known an instance
of its having proved fatal. Its worst effect is, that
it dries up the water in the skins, and so far it en-

THE CAMEL. 245

dangers the traveller’s safety. In these southern
countries, however, water-skins are made of very
thick cow-leather, which are almost impenetrable
to the semoum. In Arabia and Egypt, on the con-
trary, the skins of sheep or goats are used for this
purpose ; and I witnessed the effect of a semcum
upon them, i in going from Tor to Suez over land,
in June, 1815, when in one morning a third of the
contents of a full water-skin was evaporated. I
have repeatedly been exposed to the hot wind in
the Syrian and Arabian deserts, in Upper Egypt
and Nubia. The hottest and most violent I ever
experienced was at Suakin ; yet even there I felt
no particular inconvenience from it, although ex-
posed to all its fury in the open plain. For my
own part, I am perfectly convinced that all: the
stories which travellers or the inhabitants of the
towns of Keypt and Syria relate of the semoum of
_ the desert, are greatly exaggerated, and_I never
could hear of a single well-authenticated instance of

its having proved mortal either to man or beast.

The fact is, that the Bedouins, when questioned on
the subject, often frighten the townspeople with tales
of men, and even of whole caravans, having per-
ished by the effects of the wind ; when, upon closer
inquiry, made by some person whom they find not
ignorant of the desert, they will state the plain
truth. I never observed that the semoum blows
close to the ground, as commonly supposed, but
always observed the whole atmosphere appear as
if in a state of combustion: the dust and sand are
carried high into the air, which assumes a reddish,
or bluish, or yellowish tint, according to the nature
and colour of the gr ound from which the dust
2

IN Sa 8 9 I!

246 NATURAL HISTORY.

arises. The yellow, however, always more or less
predominates. In looking through a glass of a
light yellow colour, one may form a pretty correct
idea of the appearance of the air, as I observed it
during a stormy semoum at Esne, in Upper Egypt,
in May, 1813. The semoumis not always accom-
panied by whirlwinds ; in its less violent degree it
will blow for hours with little force, although with.
oppressive heat; when the whirlwind raises the
dust, it then increases several degrees in heat. In
the semoum at Esne, the thermometer mounted to
121° in the shade; but the air seldom remains long.
er than a quarter of an hour in that state, or long-
er than the wk‘rlwind lasts. The most disagree-
able effect of the semoum on man is, that it stops
perspiration, dries up the palate, and produces great
restlessness. J never saw any person lie down
flat upon his face to escape its pernicious blast, as_
Bruce describes himself to have done in crossiiiih
this desert ; but, during the whirlwinds, the Arabs’
often hide their faces with their cloaks, and kneel
down near their camels, to prevent the sand or dust
from hurting their eyes. Camels are always much
distressed, not by the heat, but by the dust blowing
into their large, prominent eyes: they turn round
and endeavour to screen themselves by holding
down their heads; but this I never saw them do
except in case of a whirlwind, however intense the
heat of the atmosphere might be. In June, 1813,
going from Esne to Siout, a violent semoum over-
took me upon the plain between Farshyout and
Berdys ; 1 was quite alone, mounted upon a light-
footed hedjin. When the whirlwind arose, neither
house nor tree was in sight ; and while I was en-

THE CAMEL. : 247

deavouring to cover my face with my handkerchief,
the beast was made unruly by the quantity of dust
blown into its eyes and the terrible noise of the
wind, and set off at a furious gallop; I lost the
reins, and received a heavy fall; and, not being able
to see ten yards before me, | remained wrapped up
in my cloak on the spot where I fell, until the wind
abated ; when, pursuing my dromedary, | found it
at a great distance, quietly standing near a low
shrub, the branches of which afforded some shelter
to its eyes. |
“ Bruce has mentioned the moving pillars of sand
in this desert; but, although none such occurred
during my passage, I do not presume to question
his veracity on this head. The Arabs told me that
there are often whirlwinds of sand, and I have re-
peatedly passed through districts of moving sands,
hich the slightest wind can raise ; I remember to
- Ihave seen columns of sand moving about like wa-
ter-spouts in the desert, on the banks of the EKu-
phrates, and have seen at Jaka terrible effects from
a sudden wind; I therefore very easily credit their
occasional, appearance on the Nubian desert, al-
though I doubt of their endangering the safety of
travellers.”
_ In.a subsequent part of his travels in Nubia, the
game accurate observer, to whom we are under so
many ‘obligations in this account of the camel, has
described the most tremendous hurricane of the
desert which he ever witnessed: “A dark blue
cloud first appeared, extending to about 25° above
the horizon ; as it approached nearer and increased
in height, it assumed an ash-gray colour, with a
tinge of yellow, striking every person in the cara.

— oe
See

that the Mediterranean Sea only occupies 79,800 squar

248 NATURAL IWISTORY.

van who had not been accustomed to such phenom-
ena, with amazement at its magnificent and terrific
appearance. As the cloud approached still nearer,
the yellow tinge became more general, while the
horizon presented the brightest azure. At last it
burst upon us in its rapid course, and involved us
in darkness and confusion; nothing could be dis-
tinguished at the distance of five or six feet; our
eyes were filled with dust; our temporary sheds
were blown down at the very first gust, and many .
of the more firmly fixed tents followed; the largest
withstood for a time the force of the blast, but were
at last obliged to yield, and the whole camp was
levelled with the ground. In the mean time, the
terrified camels arose, broke the cords by which
they were fastened, and endeavoured to escape from
the destruction which appeared to threaten them.”
Some writers state, that camels, at the very first
blast of the semoum, bury their noses in the sand. —
Such are the dangers to which a caravan, trav-
elling through the deserts of Asia and Africa,* is
exposed ; and, however splendidly appointed may
be the caravans of the hadj, they cannot escape
these dangers, or materially diminish the privations
of all those who pass over such dreary regions.
It must be quite evident that, without the camel,
the journey would be totally impossible. With this
useful creature, whose value to the pilgrim is be-
yond all price, its difficulties are alleviated and its
dangers averted; and if men can in any degree
* Humboldt has calculated, from maps constructed upon a

large scale, that the great desert of Africa, without including
Bornou and Darfour, extends over 194,000 square leagues. ; The

immensity of this waste will be apparent when it is red
ues.

THE CAMEL. 249

emulate the camel’s endurance and abstinence, as
the Arabs do by constant habit, there may be hun.
ger, and thirst, and fatigue, but exhaustion and
death will be battled with, and the weak, the faint
of heart, and the luxurious only will fall in the
struggle.

' The Egyptian pilgrims remain a day and night
at the castle of Akaba; their course then lies by
the eastern shore of the Red Sea. The road by
which they proceed is at first rocky and barren;
but upon the third day after the caravan leaves
Akaba, the travellers find wells of sweet water and
date-trees in abundance; and this agreeable con-
trast to the desert through which they have passed
continues for several days. ‘The roads are, indeed,
infested by robbers; and at every halting-place
there are plunderers ready to rush upon the strag-
~ giler, and often to destroy him. About the twenti-
eth day of the journey the caravan again passes
through a barren valley without water ; ; and the
wells are so distant, that the march is continued
for two days and anight without a halt. ‘The town
of Beder is at length reached on the twenty-ninth
day, where the travellers find rest and refreshment.
The route is little varied, either by difficulties or
pleasures, for several days onward, when the road
crosses a steep sandhill, which Burckhardt saw
covered with carcasses of camels, the relics of the
late hadj caravans. ‘he neighbouring plains are
spotted with tamarisk-trees, which delight in sand,
and in the driest season, when all vegetation around
them is withered, never lose their verdure. Be.
yond Kholeys, about three days’ journey from
Mecca, is a narrow ascending path between rocks,

250 NATURAL HISTORY.

affording room for the passage only of one camel.
The torrents which run down this defile in winter
entirely destroy the road; and the poor camels stum-
ble with their loads over large sharp blocks of stone,
which wound their feet. On the day before the
pilgrims reach Mecca, they repose in a valley cov-
ered with Saracen buildings, Arab huts, and date-
groves; and remarkable for its numerous henna-
trees, with the odoriferous flowers of which, reduced
to powder, the people of the East dye the palms of
the hands, the soles of the feet, or the nails of both ;

the pilgrims always carry henna home asa present
to their female relations. Near Mecca are two
great reservoirs of water, one for the Egyptian, the
other for the Syrian caravan; they are about six
hundred years old, and were constructed by the
munificence of the Turkish sultans. That appro-
priated to the Egyptian pilgrims is about one hun-
dred and sixty feet square, and from thirty to thir-
ty-five feet in depth; it is supplied by an aqueduct.
After thirty-seven days journey from the gardens
of Cairo, the hadj enters Mecca with great solem-
nity. It would be beside the purpose of this work
to describe the ceremonies in the birthplace of Mo-
hammed, which may more properly find a place in
an account of the manners of the East. The city
presents an extraordinary spectacle of business and
pleasure, of devotion and licentiousness. The rick |
hadjys spend their wealth luxuriously ; the mendi
cants display their rags and proclaim their miseries
in the courts of the great mosque; and very few
exhibit any real devotion, such as was. contem
plated in the original institution of the rim-
age. One remarkable scene, however, | be

THE CAMEL | 251

given from Burckhardt (who was present during
this great solemnity of the East), the sermon at the
mountain of Arafat, some distance from Mecca;
here the camel occupies a prominent station :

_ © The time of Aszer (or about three o’clock P.M.)
approached, when that ceremony of the hadj takes
place for which the whole assembly had come hith-
er. The pilgrims now pressed forward towards
the mountain of Arafat, and covered its sides from
top to bottom. At the precise time of Aszer the
preacher took his stand upon the platform on the
mountain, and began to address the multitude.
This sermon, which lasts till sunset, constitutes
the holy ceremony of the hadj, called Khotbetel
Wakfe; and no pilgrim, although he may have vis-
ited all the holy places of Mecca, is entitled to the
name of hadj, unless he has been present on this
- occasion. As Aszer approached, therefore, all the
tents were struck ; everything was packed up; the
caravans began to load, and the pilgrims belonging
to them mounted their camels, and crowded round
the mountain to be within sight of the preacher,
which is sufficient, as the greater part of the mul-
titude is necessarily too distant to hear him. The
two pachas, with their whole cavalry drawn up in
two squadrons behind them, took their post in the
rear of the deep lines of camels of the hadjys, to
which those of the people of the hedjaz were also
joined; and here they waited, in solemn and respect-
ful silence, the conclusion of the sermon. Farther
removed from the preacher was the Sherif Yahya,
with his small body of soldiers, distinguished by
several green standards carried before him. The
two Mahmals, or holy camels, which carry on their

252 NATURAL HISTORY.

back the high structure that serves as the banner
of their respective caravans, made way with diffi-
culty through the ranks of camels that encircled
the southern and eastern sides of the hill, opposite
to the preacher, and took their station, surrounded
by their guards, directly under the platform in front
of him. The preacher, or khatyb, who is usually
the kadhy of Mecca, was mounted on a finely ca-
parisoned camel, which had been led up the steps ;
it being traditionally said, that Mohammed was al-
ways seated when he here addressed his followers,
a practice in which he was imitated by all the ca-
lifs who came to the hadj, and who from hence ad-
dressed their subjects in person. The Turkish
gentleman of Constantinople, however, unused to
camel-riding, could not keep his seat so well as the
hardy Bedouin prophet; and the camel becoming
unruly, he was soon obliged to alight fromit. He
read his sermon from a book in Arabic which he
held in his hands. At intervals of every four or
five minutes he paused, and stretched forth his hands -
to implore blessings from above; while the assem-
bled multitudes around and before him waved the
skirts of their ihrams (cloaks) over their heads, and
rent the air with shouts of ‘ Lebeyk, Allahuma Le-
beyk’ (i. e., ‘Here we are at thy commands, oh
God!), During the wavings of the ihrams, the
side of the mountain, thickly-crowded as it was by
the people in their white garments, had the appear-
ance of a cataract of water; while the green um-
brellas, with which several thousand hadjys, sitting
on their camels below, were provided, bore some
resemblance to a verdant plain.” 5 ¥ v

‘THE CAMEL. 253

We have thus gone through the history of the
camel. The subject is full of interest; and we
could not, therefore, hastily dismiss an animal
which forms such an important part in the econo-
-my of the human race. The horse and the ele-
phant are perhaps the only other creatures that
afford equally valuable services to man, in labour-
ing for his benefit, and are equally connected with
his history. They each are intimately associated
with the progress of society in every region of the
world; and they each offer the most remarkable
adaptation of powers to the peculiar duties which
they have to perform. ‘Their labour may continue
to be, as it has been, superseded by the inventions
of machinery, and by those modes of communica.
tion which are independent of their power either
wholly or in part; but the advance of civilization
and the triumphs of art could never have been thus
far accomplished without the previous domestica-
tion of these three valuable servants ; and it is doubt-
ful whether, at any more advanced stage of human
art, their services can be greatly dispensed with.

The scientific character of the species is as fol-

lows :
Teeth—Incisors, 2. Canine,4—=}. Molar, $=.
‘Total, 34.

Two pointed teeth implanted in the incisive bone.
The scaphéid and cubdid of the tarsus (bones of

the instep) separate.
The two toes united underneath, nearly to the ex-

tremities, by a common sole.
The upper lip cleft and swelled.
No horns.

Y

& .
254 NATUBAL HISTORY.

The camels are inhabitants of the Old World, and
are almost exclusively found in Asiaand Africa.

The female goes with young eleven or twelve
months, and produces only one at a birth.

CHAPTER X. :
THE LLAMA.

Tue llamas form a secondary group of tenis
offering to the eye of the naturalist very small ana-
tomical differences of construction from that of the
camel, properly so called. The foot.of the llama
is not, like that of the camel, covered with anelas-
tic sole which joins the two toes... From the ab-
sence of this entire sole, the species of South Amer-
ica is enabled to climb the precipices of the Andes,
which are its native region, the toes haying strong
nails, each of which has. a. thick eushion or: pad
below. The llama also wants the second canine
tooth in the lower jaw; but this difference is not
by some considered such as to require a separa-
tion of the genus: for deer of various species:have
the same deviation from the general type. Again,
the absence of the hump in the llama species is not
an anatomical difference which constitutes a char-
acter; for as the skeleton of. the Bactrian camel
with two humps does not differ from that of the
Arabian with one, so does the arrangement of the
bones of the llama agree precisely with the con-
formation of the camel.

In the gardens of the Zoological Society atiltwo

ad
| ) ,
' THE LLAMA. 255

individuals of the llama family, which are described
in the guide to the gardens as varieties of the same
species. The one which principally attracts atten-
tion, by the lightness of its make, the brilliancy of
its eye, and the beautiful tawny-brown colour of

oe

‘The Llama. Auchenia Glama, ILuic¢erR and F. Cuvier.—
Lama, BuFFON and CuviIER.

its coat, stands about four feet from the sole of the
foot to the withers. He was presented to the so-
ciety by Robert Barclay, Esq. ‘This llama often
exhibits the remarkable peculiarity of its species,
that of spitting when it is offended; and as it easi-
ly takes offence, even at a look, the visiters of the
gardens have abundant opportunities of disproving
what has so often been asserted, that its saliva has
something venomous in its quality. We have re.

256 NATURAL HISTORY.

ceived a plentiful shower of it in the face, without
feeling any of those blisters which travellers used
to describe with great minuteness. This animal,
too, is somewhat inclined to strike with his fore
feet ; and he often raises himself upon the iron rail-
ing of his enclosure with an appearance of a great
desire to do mischief. ‘The power of his teeth is
considerable ; for, upon some sudden fit of rage, in
the autumn of last year, he tore a large piece out
of a strong door at one effort.

The llamas of South America furnish a beauti-
ful example of the determination of the locality of
a particular group of animals, according to the ele-
vation of the surface where they find their food.
This selection is probably determined by tempera-
ture. The llamas are stationed upon different
stages of the Cordilleras ; and are found or disap-
pear throughout that enormous chain of mount-
ains, as the summits are elevated or depressed.

‘Thus they range considerably below the line of

perpetual snow, from Chili to new Granada, with-
out reaching the Isthmus of Panama. ‘The species
is not found in Mexico; and this remarkable cir-
cumstance is to be ascribed to the fact that, at the
isthmus, the Cordillera has a less elevation than is
suited to their natures and wants. In the same
way some of the Alpine animals of Europe (such
as the bouquetin), which never descend into the

_ plains, are found upon mountains at long intervals,

although the line of their summits is interrupted.
This locality is determined by elevation. ‘The same
fact is constantly observed with regard to plants.
The llama was found by the Spaniards at the
period of their conquest of South America. It was

THE LLAMA. 258’

the only beast of burden which the natives possess.
ed. Its flesh was eaten by the Indians, and its
wool was woven into cloth. Augustin de Zarate,
who in 1544 held the office of treasurer-general
in Peru, and who wrote an account of the con-
quest, thus describes the llama (which he calls a
sheep), as it was observed in the mountains of
Chit 2. ue”

“In the places where there is no snow the na-
tives want water; and to supply this want they fill
the skins of sheep with water, and make other
living sheep carry them: for it must be remarked
that these sheep of Peru are large enough to serve
as beasts of burden. They resemble the camel in
their shape, although they have not the hump on
the back, like that animal. They can carry about
a hundred pounds or more; and the Spaniards
used to ride them, and they would go four or five
leagues a day. When they are weary, they lie
down on the ground; and as there are no means
of making them get up, either by beating or assist-
ing them, the load must, of necessity, be taken off.
When there is a man on one of them, if the beast
is tired and is urged to go on, he turns his head
round and discharges his saliva, which has a very
bad odour, into the rider’s face. ‘These animals
are of great use and profit to their masters; for
their wool is very good and fine, particularly of that
species named pacas, which have very long fleeces :
and they are of little expense for nourishment, for
a handful of maize suffices them, and they can go
four or five days without water. ‘Their flesh is as
good as that of the fat sheep of Castile. There are
now public shambles ae the sale of their flesh

i ae NATURAL HISTORY.

in all parts of Peru where the animal is found.
This was not the case when the Spaniards first
came; for when one Indian had killed a sheep, his
neighbours came and took what they wanted, and
then another Indian killed a sheep in his turn.’*
This last custom is probably that of all uncivilized
people, among whom commerce is unknown; but
it is a singular illustration of the simplicity of these
poor natives, who were content to take their supply
of food, whether of fruits or of flesh, without much
trouble either of cultivation or traffic. In a cen-
tury or two the arts of civilized life were, to a
small extent, forced upon them. Captain George
Shelvocke, an Englishman, who sailed round the
world in 1719-22, thus describes the llamas which
he saw at Arica, in Peru:

“For the carriage of the guana the people at
Arica generally use that sort of little camels which
the Indians of Peru call Jlamas; the Chilese, chilih-
neque: and the Spaniards, carneros de la tierra,
or native sheep. The heads of these animals are
small in proportion to their bodies, and are some-
what in shape between the head of a horse and that
of a sheep, the upper lips being cleft, like that of a
hare, through which they can spit to the distance
of ten paces against any one who offends them;
and if the spittle happens to fall on the face ofa
person, it causes ared itchy spot. Their necks are
long and concavely bent downward, like that of a
camel, which animal they greatly resemble, except
in having no hunch on their backs, and in being
much smaller. Their ordinary height is from four
feet to four and a half, and their ordinary burden

* Histoire du Perou, vol. i. p. 177. Paris, 1716.

*

THE LLAMA. 259

does not exceed a hundred weight. They walk,
holding up their heads, with wonderful gravity, and
at so regular a pace as no beating can quicken.
At night it is impossible to make them move with
their loads, for they lie down till these are taken
off, and then go to graze. Their ordinary food is
a sort of grass called yeho, somewhat like a small
rush, but finer, and has a sharp point, with which
all the mountains are covered exclusively. They
eat little, and never drink, so that they are easily
maintained. ‘They have cloven feet, like sheep,
and are used at the mines to carry ore to the
mills; and, as soon as loaded, they set off without
any guide to the place where they are usually
unloaded.

“ They havea sort of spur above the foot, which
renders them sure-footed among the rocks, as it
~ serves as a sort of hook to hold by.* Their hair,
or woo] rather, is long, white, gray, and russet, in
spots, and fine, but much inferior to that of the
vicunna (vigonia), and has a strong and disagree-
able scent. |

“The vicunna is shaped much like the llama, but
much smaller and lighter, their wool being extra-
ordinarily fine and much valued. ‘These animals
are often hunted after the following manner: many
Indians gather together, and drive them into some
narrow pass, across which they have previously
extended cords about four feet from the ground,
having bits of wool or cloth hanging to them at
small distances. This so frightens them that they
dare not pass, and they gather together in a string,
when the Indians kill them with stones tied to the

* This is fabulous.

ee ae
=’ eee

i

;

;
igs
i

Fan

aia
-

260 NATURAL HISTORY.

ends of leather thongs. Should any guanacos
happen to be among the flock, these leap over the
cords, and are followed by all the vicunnas. These
guanacos are larger and more corpulent, and are
also called viscachas.

“'There is yet another animal of this kind called
alpagnes (alpacas), having wool of extraordinary
fineness; but their legs are shorter, and their
snouts contracted in such a manner as to give
them some resemblance to the human countenance.

“The Indians make several uses of these crea-
tures, some of which carry burdens of about a
hundred weight. Their wool serves to make stuffs,
cords, and sacks ; their bones are used for the con-
struction of weaver’s utensils; and their dung is
ae as fuel for dressing meat and warming
their vee

The Frode of killing the vigonias, described by
Shelvocke, prevails in Chili and Peru at the present

day. It is afhrmed that eighty thousand are thus

killed every year solely for their wool, and that the
species does not appear to diminish.| Gregoire
de Bolivar says, that in his time the llamas were
so numerous, that four millions were killed every
year for their flesh, and that three hundred thousand
were employed at the mines of Potosi. The ex-
traordinary multiplication of animal life in South
America is familiar to every reader; the Pampas ©
are covered with troops of wild horses, and the
oxen are slaughtered by hundreds for their skins
alone. In the Memoirs of General Miller, an
Englishman in the service of the republic of Peru,

* Kerr’s Collection of Voyages, vol X., p. 462.
t Dict. cua oad

THE LLAMA. 261

it is stated that wood was formerly so scarce and
cattle so plentiful, that sheep were driven into the
furnaces of limekilns in order to answer the pur-
poses of fuel; and that a decree of the king of
Spain, prohibiting this barbarous custom, is still
preserved in the archives of Buenos Ayres. ~

This extraordinary abundance of animal food,
and the equal fertility of many districts, where the
finest fruits grow spontaneously, and only require
the trouble of being gathered, has had a marked
effect in retarding the improvement of the natives
of. South America. They are neither a pastoral
nor an agricultural people; and thus, surrounded
by partial civilization, they remain without any
excitement to labour, which alone could improve
their moral and physical condition. Humboldt has
beautifully described the state of primitive rudeness
in which many of the tribes of South America
remain, partly from their geographical position,
and partly from the spontaneous bounty of their
climate :

“ When we attentively examine this wild part of
America, we appear to be carried back to the first
ages, when the earth was peopled step by step; we
seem to assist at the birth of human societies. In
the Old World we behold the pastoral life prepare
a people of huntsmen for the agricultural life. In
the New World, we look in vain for these pro.
gressive developments of civilization, these mo-
ments of repose, these resting-places in the life of
a people. The luxury of vegetation embarrasses
the Indianin the chase. As the rivers are like arms
of the sea, the depth of the water for many months
prevents their fishing. Those species of rumina-

262 NATURAL HISTORY.

ting animals which catia the riches of the peo-
ple of the Old Wor ld are wanting in the New.
The bison and the musk-ox have not yet been re-
duced to the domestic state ; the enormous multipli-
cation of the llama and the guanaco have not pro-
duced in the natives the habits of the pastoral life.”

The following is the scientific character of the
species, which is ne a to South America :

T eeth—Incisors, 3 2, Canine, 17,, Mola ze Bi
Total 30.

The two toes separated; the back without: a
hump; without horns. The female goes with
young about six n onths.

~~

a

THE GIRAFFE. 263

i? aa
4

CHAPTER XI,
THE GIRAFFE.
Tritt the year 1827, when a giraffe arrived in

England and another in France, the animal had
not been seen in Europe since the end of the fif-

teenth century, when the Soldan of Egypt sent one.

to Lorenzo di Medici. This individual was repre-
sented in the frescoes at Poggio Acajano,* near
Florence, in which city it was very familiar with
the inhabitants, living on the fruits of the country,
particularly apples, and stretching up its long neck
to the first floors of the houses to implore a meal.t
There was a giraffe at Rome at the period of Ju-
lius Ceesar’s dictatorship, which appears to have
been the first seen in Kurope; the Roman emper-
ors afterward exhibited them in the games of the
circus, or in their triumphal processions: Gordian
III. had ten living giraffes at one time. The absence
of the giraffe from Europe for three centuries and a
half naturally induced a belief that the descriptions
of this animal were in great part fabulous; that a
creature of such extraordinary height and apparent
disproportions was not to be found among the actual
works of nature; and that it more properly be-
longed to the group of chimeras with which the re-

* Poggio Acajano is a villa belonging to the Grand-duke of

Tuscany, between Florence and Prato.
t Geoffroy St. Hilaire.

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hi 264 NATURAL HISTORY.

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: Giraffe, Xariffa. Camelopardalis Giraffa, LINN®US.— Giraffe,
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THE GIRAFFE. 265

gions of imiipthation are tenanted, the unicorns,
and sphinxes, and satyrs, anc ee nocephali, of an-
cient poets and naturalists.
The old travellers often mentioned the camelo-
pard in the terms of exaggeration which ‘they nat.
urally derived from the reports of Africans. It
was “a beast not often seene, yet very tame, and
of a strange composition, mixed of a libard (leop-
ard), harte, buffe,and camel; and by reason of his
long legs before and shorter behind, not able to
_ graze without difficulty.”* Again, he was “so
_ huge, that a man on horseback may passe uprighte
under him, feeding on leaves from the tops of trees,
and formed like a camel.” In a very curious
Spanish book, however, which describes an embas-
sy from Henry III. of Castile to ‘Tamerlane the
Great, in 1403 (being the second sent to ‘Tamer.
lane by the King of Castile), there is a minute, and,
in many respects, accurate account of the giraffe :
“The ambassadors sent by the King of Castile,
Henri II., to. the Great Tamerlane, arrived at a
town called Hoy, now Khoy, on the confines of Ar.
‘menia, where the Persian empire commences. At
that town they fell in with an ambassador, whom
the sultan of Babylon had sent to Tamerlane. He
had with him as many as twenty horsemen, and fif-
teen camels, laden with presents, which the sultan
sent to Tamerlane. Besides these, there were six os-
triches, and an animal called jornufa (giraffe), which
animal was formed in the following manner: In
body it was of the size of a horse, with the neck very
long, and the fore legs much taller than the hinder

* Purchas, book vi., chap. i.
t Ibid., book " , chap. vi.

—
ae ix

,

Hk» 266 NATURAL HISTORY.

; = : P
ones: the hoof was cloven, like that of the ox.
From the hoof of the fore leg to the top | of : the

; shoulder it was sixteen hands (palmos); and fron
i the shoulders to the head, sixteen hands more; an

when it raised its neck, it lifted its head so higt as 5 to
be a wonder to all. The neck was thin, like that of
the stag ; and so great was the disproportion of the
length of the hinder legs to that of the fore legs, that

ip one who was not acquainted with it would think it
i was sitting, although it was standing. It had the

M haunches slanting, like the buffalo, anda white belly.
“a The skin was of a golden hue, and marked with large
e round white spots. In the lower part of the face it
5 resembled the deer; on the forehead it had a high
: and pointed prominence; very large and round eyes;
, ¥ and the ears like those of a horse ; near the ears, two

small round horns, the greater part covered with

hair, resguabling the horns of deer on their first ap-

pearance. Such was the length of the neck, and

bs the animal raised its head so high when he chose,

hes ‘that he could eat with facility from the top of a
lofty wall; and from the top of a high tree it could

. reach to eat the leaves, of which it devoured J

quantities. So that altogether it was a marvel
| sight to one who had never seen such an ani
M before.’””*
rt Buffon, and other zoologists, fell into the com-
a mon error of describing the giraffe as haying his
fore legs twice as long as his hind. It was not till
within the last forty years that we obtained any
f very precise notions of the form and habits of the
j giraffe ; and we principally owe them to Le Vail-
lant, whose narrative was, indeed, originally con-
* Historia del Grand Tamerlan, &c., Madrid, 1782

THE GIRAFFE. 267 [

sidered, in some degree, fabulous, but the correct-
ness of whose statements in this particular has '
since been abundantly confirmed. The first en- t
counter of this naturalist with the giraffe is de-
scribed in such a picturesque manner, that our read-
ers may be pleased with a translation of the pas- }
sage ; he was travelling in Great Namaqua-land :

“ J was now struck bya sort of distinction which
I perceived on one of the huts; it was entirely
covered with the skin of a giraffe. 1 had never /

seen this quadruped, the tallest of all those upon ¥
the earth; I knew it only from false descriptions iW
and designs, and thus I could scarcely recognise 4
its robe. And yet this was the skin of the giraffe. |
I was in the country which this creature inhabits ; i
I might probably see some living ones: I looked
forward to the moment when I should be thus rec.
ompensed, at least in part, for all the oun es and
annoyances of my expedition.’”*

And this enthusiasm was not anna in M. le i
Vaillant. It was a distinction for a European to ey!
behold with his own eyes an animal, of whose ex- __ ;

istence men had begun to doubt. Our own coun. biel
_ tryman, Burchell, has expressed the same feelings : Hit
_ 'Those who have acquired a taste for zoological We
information, will readily comprehend in what man- i
ner the footmarks of an animal could be interest- i

ing, or afford any particular gratification, such as

I experienced in this day’s journey, when they are

told, that we now first distinguished the track of i

the tallest of all the quadrupeds in the world; of if

one which, from the time of the Romans until the

middle of the last century, was so little known to ve
* Second Voyage en Afrique, tom. ii., p. 48, 4to, Paris. |

268 NATURAL HISTORY.

the nations of Europe, as to have been at length
3 considered by most people as a fabulous creature,
| one not existing on the globe. No person who has

| read even the popular books of natural history
' could, I think, behold for the first time the ground
f over which he is walking imprinted with the recent

footsteps of a camelopardalis, without feeling some
strange and peculiar interest at the sight. Thean-

imal itself was not observed, but our attention was
i now awakened by the expectation of soon gettin

ie a full view of this extraordinary creature ; and the
4 hope of being the first of the party to see it, kep:

i all my men on the look-out the whole day.’
We return to Le Vaillant: a
) “One of the Namaquas, who were my guide
‘: came in great haste to give me informatio Sahich
+ he thought would be agreeable tome. He hads
the strong feeling of pleasure which I had evi
| at the sight of the skin of the giraffe ;_ had
run to say that he had just found in the neigh hbour-

hood one of these animals under a mimosa

leaves of which he was browsing upon. In an in-
; stant, full of joy, I leaped upon my horse; I made

HI Bernfry (one of his men) mount another, and, fol.
eH lowed by my dogs, I flew towards the mimosa.

ei. The giraffe was no longer there. We saw her -
ri cross the plain towards the west, and we hastened
a to overtake her. She was proceeding at a smart
ie trot, but did not appear to be at all hurried. We
. galloped after her, and occasionally fired our mus-
: 4 kets ; but she insensibly gained so much upon us,
i that, after having pursued her for three hours, we
were forced to stop, because our horses were quite

* Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii., p. 248.

THE GIRAFFE. 269

‘out of breath, and we entirely lost sight of her. . .
The pursuit had led us far away from each other
and from the camp ; and the giraffe having made
many turns and doubles, I was unable to direct my
course towards home. It was noon. I already
began to feel hunger and thirst ; and I found my-
self alone, in a steril and arid ‘spot, exposed to a
burning sun, without the least shelter from the
heat, and destitute of food.” The traveller, how
ever r, Shot and cooked some birds of the partridge
yen US 5 and was fortunate to rejoin his com-
panions in the evening. “The next morning my
whole caravan joined me again. I saw five other
| giraffes, to which I gave chase ; but they employed
so many stratagems to escape, that, after having
- pursued them the whole day, we entirely lost them
as the night came on. I was in despair at this ill
-success.. ... The next day, the 10thof Novem-
ber, was the happiest of my life. By sunrise I wags

ite pursuit of game, in the hope to obtain some pro-

visions fer my men. After several hours’ fatigue,
we descried, at the turn of a hill, seven giraffes,
which my pack instantly pursued. Six of them
went off together; but the seventh, cut off by the
dogs, took another way. Bernfry was walking by
the side of his horse, but in the twinkling of an eye
he was in the saddle, and pursued the six. For
myself, I followed the single one at full speed ;_ but,
in spite of the efforts of my horse, she got so much
ahead of me, that, in turning a little hill, I lost
sight of her altogether, and I gave up the pursuit.
My dogs, however, were not so easily exhausted.
They were soon so close upon her that she was
obliged to stop to defend herself. From the place
Z 2

" 270 — NATURAL HISTORY. -

| where I was I heard them give tongue with all their
might; and, as their voices appeared all to come
: from the same spot, I conjectured that they had got
’ the animal in a corner, and I again pushed forward.

I had scarcely got round the hill, when I perceived
her surrounded by the dogs, and endeavouring to
drive them away by heavy kicks. In a moment I
i | was on my feet, anda shot from my carbine brought
ii her to the earth. Enchanted with my victory, I
returned to call my people about me, that they

i might assist in skinning and cutting up the animal.
i While I was looking for them, I saw Klaas Baster
,, (another of his men), who kept making signals
i which I could not comprehend. At length I we ent
7 the way he pointed, and, to my surprise, saw a gi-

7 raffe standing under a large ebony-tree, assailed

a by my dogs. It was the animal I had shot, who
had staggered to this place; and it fell dead at the

z£ | ee I was about to take a second shot. 3
iw “Who could have believed that a conquest like

| this would have excited me to a transport almost
: approaching to madness! Pains, fatigues, cruel
#! privation, uncertainty as to the future, disgust
4 sometimes as to the past; all these recollections
‘ and feelings fled at the sight of this new prey. I

it could not satisfy my desire to contemplate it. I
measured its enormous height. I looked from the
animal to the instrument which had destroyed it.
I called and recalled my people about me. Al-
though we had combated together the largest and
most dangerous animals, it was I alone who had
killed the giraffe. I was now able to add to the
riches of natural history ; I was now able to de-
stroy the romance which attached to this animal,

nhs

=e"
= Sm ae apa =

>

wo

THE GIRAFFE. 271

and to establish a truth. My people congratulated
me on my triumph. Bernfry alone was absent ;
but he came at last, walking at a slow pace, and
holding his horse by the bridle. He had fallen
from his seat and injured his shoulder. I heard not
what he said to me. I saw not that he wanted as-
sistance ; | spoke to him only of my victory. He
showed me his shoulder ; I showed him my giraffe.
J was intoxicated, and I should not have thought
even of my own wounds.”*

“The giraffe,” says Le Vaillant, “ ruminates, as
every animal does that possesses, at the same time,
hanes aay cloven feet. It grazes also in the same

apabits has little pasturage. Its ordinary food is
“the leaf of a sort of mimosa, called by the natives
kanaap, and by the colonists kameeldoorn. ‘This
tree being only found in the country of the Nama-
quas, may probably afford a reason why the giraffe
is there fixed, and why he is not seen in those re-
gions of Southern Africa where the tree does not
grow.

“Doubtless the most beautiful part of his body
is the head. ‘The mouth is small; the eyes are
brilliant and full. Between the eyes and above
the nose is a swelling, very prominent and well de-
fined. ‘This prominence is not a fleshy excres-
cence, but an enlargement of the bony substance ;
and it seems to be similar to the two little lumps
or protuberances with which the top of his head is
armed, and which, being about the size of a hen’s
ego, spring, on each side, at the commencement of
the mane. The two jaws have on each side six

* Second Voyage, tom. ii., p. 54.

272 NATURAL HISTORY.

molar teeth; but the lower jaw has, beyond these,
. eight incisive teeth, while the upper jaw has none.
‘The hoofs, which are cleft and have no nails,

a resemble those of the ox. We may remark, at first
j sight, that those of the fore feet are larger than
= those of the hind. ‘The leg is very slender, but the

knees have a prominence, because the animal
kneels when he lies down. There is also a larger
callosity on the breast, which would lead one te
1 conclude that he generally rests on that part.
| “Tf I had not myself killed the giraffe, I should
Ve have believed, as have many naturalists, that the
mH) fore legs are much longer than the hind. This is
i an error ; for the legs have, in general, the propor-
tion of those of other quadrupeds. I say in gen-
a eral, because in this genus there are varieties, as
: there are in animals of the same species. ‘Thus, for
example, mares are lower before than stallions of
an equal height. What has led to this error as to’
| the difference between the legs of the giraffe, is the
+ height of the withers, which, according to the ani-
mal’s age, may exceed the height of the rump by
sixteen or twenty inches, and which disproportion,

ai when we see it at a distance, must have led to the
fy belief that its legs were longer before than behind.
¥ - ««. .. His defence, as that of the horse and
a9 - other hoofed animals, consists in kicks; and his

i hinder limbs are so light and his blows so rapid,
oy that the eye cannot follow them. They are suffi-
i? cient for his defence against the lion. He never
a employs his horns in resisting any attack. ....
4 ay The giraffes, male and female, resembie each other

in their exterior in their youth. Their obtuse
on horns are then terminated by a knot of long hair:

ay

“ee ¥ re
3 he

THE GIRAFFE. 278

the female preserves this peculiarity some time, but
the male loses it at the age of three years. The
hide, which is at first of a light red, becomes of a
deeper colour as the animal advances in age, and
is at length of a yellow brown in the female, and of
a brown approaching to black in the male. By
this difference of colour the male may be distin-
guished from the female ata distance. The skin

varies in both sexes, as to the distribution and form .

of the spots.. The female is not so high as the
male, and the prominence of the front is not so
marked. She has four teats. . According to the
account of the natives, she goes with young about
twelve months, and has one at a birth.”

The mode in which it lays hold of the succulent
branches of trees, and many of its other motions,

ES ‘ \ \\
Yj S&S WES
a X lf S SS>
Fx i RAY Y
ZF We a pease cay rn XA

FE” rE

' LL 7 SSG, ele ¢
! EF a”, \

hy y > iY:
gE-_ the

VT ies / [Ae Kav

‘Mio Sige
PO eZ
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are shown in the annexed sketch, from the pencil
of Mr. Agasse.

274 NATURAL HISTORY.

The differences between individuals of the same
species of animals—to say nothing of varieties—

have ordinarily produced considerable contradiction

in the statements of the most accurate observers.
Thus Mr. Davis, who regarded the giraffe as one
accustomed to the movements of animals, differs
from M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire with regard to the
pace of the giraffe. Again, M. Acerbi, who saw
both the giraffes of England and France at Alex-
andria, as well as two others, differs from Mr.
Davis as to the difficulty which the animal may feel
in reaching tothe ground. Ina published letter, he
says, “there are few naturalists who have not con-
tributed to perpetuate the vulgar error, that ‘in
eating and drinking from the ground, the giraffe is
compelled to stretch his fore legs amazingly for-
ward.’ Some even assert that ‘he is obliged to
kneel down.’ Of the four animals which fell under
my examination, three took their food from the
ground with comparative facility ; and one of them
was scarcely under the necessity of moving its fore
legs at all. .... . I should infer that every giraffe,
in a natural state, is enabled to eat or drink from
the ground without inconvenience ; and that, where
any difficulty exists in this respect, it is the effect
of habit, acquired in the progress of domestication.”
These contradictions in minute points are some-

times startling; but it is to be remembered that ©

even the same animal is to be seen in different cir-
cumstances. Sir Everard Home fancied that the
giraffe preferred licking the hand of a lady to that
of a man; Mr. Davis tells us he never saw any
such exhibition of politeness. In one point all the
observers of the European giraffes agree, that they

THE GIRAFFE. | RAED

never make any noise whatever. Farther, they
appear to consider that the animal would be use-
less to man in a state of domestication. M. Acer-
bi has an anecdote illustrative of this point :
“When at Alexandria, I had one day ordered
the two giraffes (a male and female) taken at Dar-
fir to be led up and down the square in front of
my house: among the crowd collected on the oc-
casion were some Bedouins ofthe Desert. On in-
quiring of one of them whether he had ever seen
similar animals before, he replied that he had not ;
and I then asked him in Arabic, ‘ Taib di? Do they
please you?’ ‘To which he rejoined, ‘ Mustaib,’ or,
‘Ido not like them.’ Having desired my inter-
preter to inquire the motives of his disapproval, he
answered, ‘ that it did not carry like a horse; it did
not serve for field labours like an ox; did not yield
hair like a camel, nor flesh and milk like a goat;
and on this account it was not to his liking.’ ”
After all, it is a narrow view of the economy of
Providence, and perhaps a selfish one, to limit our
notions of the use of any being in the wide field of
creation by a reference to its ability to furnish ben-
efits to ourselves. That they all advance some
wise purpose in the arrangement of the world, is
evident from the care which has been observed to
provide every species with the means for its pres-
ervation. Those which are weak, and liable to be
destroyed by numberless enemies, have an extraor-
dinary fecundity ; those which are powerful and
dangerous multiply very slowly; and though their
existence depends upon precarious supplies, they
have wonderful powers of availing themselves of
the food destined to their peculiar natures ; those

.

=
Lea
=

276 NATURAL HISTORY.

which are gregarious have in their combinations
an adequate protection against the ordinary at-
tacks of the fiercer beasts; and those which are

_ few in number, such as the giraffe, have the means
_ of obtaining food in a peculiar manner; live in sol-
itary districts, where the wants of pasture neither

‘ brings the herd nor their destroyers; and have
i sreat quickness of sight and hearing, and the abil-
‘ ity of rapid flight. Among the peculiarities by

which the giraffe is enabled to secure his race
from the attacks of the stronger, is the construc-
tion of his eye, by which he can_see his enemy on
every side.

The teeth of the girafle are, in number and ar-
rangement, as follows: -

Incisors, 2, Canine, $=2, Molar, g-8. Total, 32.

*

CHAPTER XII

ANTELOPES.

Tue Giraffe is classed among naturalists i
same great division with the Deer and the /
lope. Lach of these genera are described as ru-
minants, having either permanent horns on their
heads, or bony substances which fall off and are
renewed.

1. The first tribe, the deer, has bony subaimaces,
generally branched, which fall off annually, and are
annually renewed, of a larger size than the pre-

«

ANTELOPES. a ty Q77

ceding year, always existing on the head of the
male, and sometimes on the head of the female.

2. The giraffe forms the second tribe, which is
distinguished by having horns or prominences on
the frontal bone, covered with a soft skin, which
is a continuation of the skin of the head. ‘These
horns exist in both sexes, and are permanent.

3. The third tribe, the antelope, is marked by
the prominences of the frontal bone being covered
with a sheath of horn, composed of hardened fibres,
which grows in layers, and increases during the
whole life.

We thus see that the antlers of the deer are
formed of bone, and annually fall off and are renew-
ed; that the prominences of the giraffe are cov-
ered over with the skin of the forehead ; and that
the horns of the antelopes are hard sheaths, which
are permanent, and increase in size every year.

' Buffon considered that the age of an antelope
was indicated by the number of tings on his horn.
This was an error; for Pallas has shown, that al-
though there is a real augmentation of the number
of rings as the animal advances in age, yet as the
horns increase less and less as the animal becomes
older, there | is no equal relation between the prog-
yf life and the growth of the horn.

With the exception of four species, A. Gazella,
A. caama, A. oryx, and A. Cucophea, the females
of the antelope tribe have no horns.

Almost all the tribe of antelopes are of a gentle
and social nature. In general, with the exception
of many of the smaller species of Southern Africa,
they live in large herds. Their sight, their hear.
ing, and their smell, - of extreme delicacy

A

e-

eee Snr S tree =e

pe Syse :

#

278 NATURAL HISTORY.

From the proportion of the volume of the auditory
cavity. which determines the power of the sense of
hearing, the ear of the anteloglifhns a greater quick.
ness than that of any other ruminating animal.

“The nylghau, the gnu, and the chamois, are excep-

tions to this superiority, as regards the develop-
ment of the auditory cavity ; and this may arise
from the former inhabiting plains, where they are
more exposed to danger, and the latter living in
places less accessible by their enemies.

The name of antelope, although it appears of
Greek origin, was not used by the ancients. Ina
work attributed to Eustathius,* who lived in the
time of Constantine, the name of antholopos is ap-
plied to an animal with long horns, jagged like a
saw.t Many writers of the middle ages have ap-
plied to the same animal the designations of anthol-
opos, antaplos, and aptalos. It is conjecturec that
this animal was the oryx, a species of antelope ©
which, according to a fabulous notion, had only one
horn. Panthalops, in the old language of Egypt,
was the unicorn. It is supposed by comparative
anatomists that the rhinoceros was the unicorn of

Scripture.

The most elegant of antelopes is the gazelle.
Its height is twenty inches, and its length from
head to tail twenty-two inches. Its skin is beau-
tifully sleek, its body extremely graceful, its head
peculiarly light, its ears highly flexible, its eyes
most brilliant and glancing, and its legs as slender
as areed. The Arabian poets have applied their
choicest epithets to the beauty of the gazelle, and

* Not the Commentator on Homer. t sil

ANTELOPES. 279

= 4
= My
a: Why

7 KE

j

YY
Z| i}

SS
SG

SSN
SRREAQA

MADDON VGA
Uy)
5, j
y b/ t

ESR

= Sean

The Gazelle.

their descriptions have been adopted into our own
poetry. Byron has adopted the image in speaking
of the dark eyes of an Eastern beauty :

‘‘ Go look on those of the gazelle.”

“tig oe,

When the Arabian describes his mistress, she is
“an antelope in beauty ;” “ his gazelle employs all
his soul ;” and thus, in their figurative language,
perfect beauty and gazelle beauty are synonymous.

These animals are spread, in innumerable herds,
from Arabia to the river Senegal, in Africa. Lions
and panthers feed upon them; and man chaces
them with the dog, the ounce, and the falcon.

a

ae a

Ee eee
<anee. ©
a OA

—

Ae aS,

=e ere

ee

—
pean ener

280. NATURAL HISTORY.

Antilope Pygarga, PaLLas.

The beautiful animal of which the above is a
representation was exhibited at Exeter Change,
London, in 1828. It was called by its keepers the
Lyre-Anielope, but many of the gazelles have their
horns in the form from which this name was given.
The rings upon the horns, which are very decided,
form a marked characteristic of this species. It
was considerably larger than the gazelle, being
about three feet high. The Pygarga, to which spe-
cies we have reason to think this individual ante.

= ig

SPRINGBOKS. 281

lope belonged, inhabits Southern Africa and parts
of Asia.

The Springbok (the Antilope euchore of Burchell)
is well known to the colonists at the Cape. ‘It is
easily distinguished,” says Burchell, “ from all the
known species, by the very long white hair along
the middle of the back, which, lying flat, is nearly
concealed by the fur on each side, and is expanded
only when it takes those extraordinary leaps which
first suggested itsname.” Mr. Burchell’s descrip-
tion of a herd of springboks is very picturesque :

“ At this high level we entered upon a very ex-
tensive, open plain, abounding to an incredible de-
gree in wild animals; among which were several
large herds of quakkas, and many wilde-beests or
gnues: but the springbucks were far the most nu-
merous, and, like flocks of sheep, completely cov-
ered several parts of the plain. Their uncertain
movements rendered it impossible to estimate their
number ; but, I believe, if I were to guess it at two
thousand, I should still be within the truth. This
is one of the most beautiful of the antelopes of
Southern Africa; and it is certainly one of the
most numerous. The plain afforded no other ob.
ject to fix the attention ; and even if it had pre.
sented many, I should not readily have ceased ad-
miring those elegant animals, or have been divert-
ed from watching their manners. It was only oc-
easionally that. they took those remarkable leaps,
which have been the origin of the name; but, when
grazing or moving at leisure, they walked or trot-
ted like other antelopes, or as the common deer.
When pursued, or hastening their pace, they fre.
a Aas

a

282 NATURAL HISTORY.

quently took an extraordinary bound, rising with
curved or elevated backs high into the air, gener-
ally to the height of eight feet, and appearing as
if about to take flight. ‘Some of the herds moved
by us almost within musket shot; and I observed
that in crossing the beaten road, the greater number
cleared it by one of those flying Jeaps.. As the
road was quite smooth and level with the plain,
there was no necessity for their leaping over it;
but it seemed that the fear of a snare, or a natural
disposition to regard man as an enemy, induced
them to mistrust even the ground which he had
trodden.’”*
The migrations of innumerable companies of
springboks, from unknown regions in the interior
of Africa to the abodes of civilization, are among
the most extraordinary examples of the fecundity
of animal life. The vast quantity of a species of
birds of South America, which produce the guano
(a manure) in sufficient abundance to be a great
article of commerce ; the flocks of pigeons of North
America, the locusts of Africa, are not more stri-
king than the herds of springboks. ‘They do not
come alone to the cultivated plains. “’The lion
has been seen to migrate, and walk in the midst of
the compressed phalanx, with only as much room
between him and his victims as the fears of those
immediately around could procure by pressing out-
ward.” + The immense migratory swarms of these
animals, which occasionally pour themselves like a
deluge from the Bushman territory upon the north-
ern frontiers of the Cape colony, have never been

* Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii., p. 109. a; r )
¢ Cuvier’s Anima) Kingdom, by Griffiths, vol. iv.,

SPRINGBOKS. 283

more vividly described than by Captain Stocken-
strom, the chief civil commissioner at the Cape.
He says, “It is scarcely possible for a person
passing over some of the extensive tracts of the
interior, and admiring that elegant antelope the
springbok, thinly scattered over the plains, and
bounding in playful innocence, to figure to himself
that these ornaments of the desert can often become
as destructive as the locusts themselves. ‘The in-
credible numbers which sometimes pour in from
the north during protracted droughts, distress the
farmer inconceivably. Any attempt at numerical
computation would be vain; and by trying to come
near the truth the writer would subject himself, in
the eyes of those who have no knowledge of the
country, to a suspicion that he was availing him.
self of a traveller’s assumed privilege. Yet it is
well known in the interior, that on the approach
of the Trek-bokken (as these migratory swarms
are called), the grazier makes up his mind to look
for pasture for his flocks elsewhere, and considers
himself entirely dispossessed of his lands until
heavy rains fall. Livery attempt to save the culti-
vated fields, if they be not enclosed by high and
thick hedges, proves abortive. Heaps of dry ma-
nure (the fuel of the Sneeuwbergen and other parts)
are placed close to each other round the fields, and
set on fire in the evening,so as to cause a dense
smoke, by which it is hoped the antelopes will be
deterred from their inroads; but the dawn of day
exposes the inefficacy of the precaution, by show-
ing the lands, which appeared proud of their prom-
ising verdure the evening before, covered with
thousands, and reaped level with the ground. In.

|
|
;
|
;

284 NATURAL es

stances have been known of sue of those prodi-
gious droves passing through flocks of sheep, and
numbers of the latter carried along with the torrent,
being lost to the owners, and becoming a prey to
the wild beasts. As long as these droughts last,
their inroads and depredations continue; and the
havoc committed upon them is of course great, as
they constitute the food of all classes : but no sooner
do the rains fall than they disappear, and in a few
days become as scarce on the northern borders as
in the more protected districts of Bruintjes-Hoogte
and Camdeboo.

“The African colonists themselves can form no
conception of the cause of the extraordinary ap-
pearance of these animals ; and, from their not be-
ing able to account for it, those who have not been
eyewitnesses of such scenes consider their accounts
exaggerated ; but a little more minute inspection
of the country south of the Orange River solves
the difficulty at once. The immense desert tracts
between that river and our colony, westward of
the Zeekoe River, though destitute of permanent
springs, and, therefore, uninhabitable by human be.
ings for any length of time, are, notwithstanding,
interspersed with stagnant pools and v/eys, or natu-
ral reservoirs of brackish water, which, however
bad, satisfies the game. In these endless plains,
the springboks multiply, undisturbed by the hunter
(except when occasionally the Bosjesman destroys
a few with his poisoned arrows), until the country
literally swarms with them; when, perhaps, one
year out of four or five, a lasting drought leaves
the pools exhausted, and parches up the soil, natu-

rally inclined to sterility. Thus want, principally

_ SPRINGBOKS. 285

of water, drives thee myriads of animals either to
the Orange River or to the colony, when they in-
trude in the manner above described. . But when
the bountiful thunder-clouds pour their torrents upon
our burned-up country, reanimating vegetation,
and restoring plenty to all graminivorous animals,
then, when we could, perhaps, afford to harbour
those unwelcome visiters, their own instinct and
our persecutions propel them again to their more
steril but peaceful and secluded plains, to recruit
the numbers lost during their. migration, and to re-
sume their attacks upon us when their necessities
shall again compel them.”

Upon this interesting subject we are favoured
with some original remarks by Mr. Pringle :

“'T'o the above description of the migratory
swarms of springboks, I have little to add from my
_ Own observation. I once passed through a most
astonishing multitude, scattered over the grassy
plains near the Little Fish River. I could not,
for my own part, profess to estimate their number
with any degree of accuracy; but they literally
whitened, or rather speckled, the face of the coun-
try as far as the eye could reach over those far-
stretching plains ; and a gentleman, better acquaint-
ed than myself with such scenes, who was riding
with me, affirmed that we could not have fewer of
these animals at one time under our eye than twen-
ty-five or thirty thousand.

“J am not aware whether any species of antelope
nearly allied to the springbok is to be found in the
northern parts of Africa or in Palestine; but itis a
singular circumstance, that the name of this animal,

in the Bichuana language (tzebe), is precisely the

>

286 NATURAL

same as that used in the Song
nate an animal of the antelope f
rendered voe in our translation.*

“The springbok is easily tamed when caught
young. Ihave seen it, in several places, reared as
a plaything for the children, at the farms of the col-
onists, sometimes playing like a pet lamb about the
doors, among the numerous swarms of dogs and
poultry; in other instances accompanying the flocks
of sheep and goats to pasture, and returning as reg-
ularly and quietly as the rest.

“Such facts demonstrate how easy it would be,
with a little care and management, to enlarge the
list of domesticated animals, by adding to them
many species of such as are at present considered
the most shy and impracticable.” |

lomon to desig-
mily, erroneously

S))

In the well-arranged menagerie of Mr. Cross,
* Chap. i1., 9-17. ’

_ THE GNU. 287 -

London, there are two fine specimens of the male
and female gnu. The preceding, isa portrait of the
male. These individuals are tolerably gentle, but
somewhat uncertain in their tempers.

We are indebted to Mr. Pringle for the follow-
ing account of this animal, as seen by him in its
native regions :

_ ©The curious animal called gnu by the Hotten-
tots, wilde beest (i. e., wild ox) by the Dutch colo-
nists, was an inhabitant of the mountains adjoining
the Scottish settlement at Bavian’s River, and I had
therefore opportunities of very frequently seeing it
both singly and in small herds. Though usually,
and perhaps correctly, by naturalists ranked among
the antelope race, it appears to form, evidently, one
of those intermediate links which connect, as it
were, the various tribes of animals in a harmoni-
ous system in the beautiful arrangement of nature.
As the hyena dog, or ‘ wilde hond,’ of South Africa
connects the dog and wolf tribe with that of the
hyzna, in like manner does the gnu form a grace:
ful link between the buffalo and the antelope. Pos.
sessing the distinct features which, according to
naturalists, are peculiar to the latter tribe, the gnu
exhibits, at the same time, in his general aspect,
figure, motions, and even the texture and taste of
his flesh, qualities which partake very strongly of
the bovine character.. Among other peculiarities
I observed that, like the buffalo or the ox, he is
strangely affected by the sight of scarlet; and it
was one of our amusements, when approaching
these animals, to hoist a red handkerchief on a pole,
and to observe them caper about, lashing their
flanks with their long tails, and tearing up the

288 NATURAL HISTORY.

ground with their hoofs, as if they were violently
excited, and ready to rush down upon us; and
then all at once, when we were about to fire upon
them, to see them bound away, and again go
prancing round us at a safer distance. When
wounded, they are reported to be sometimes rather
dangerous to the huntsman; but, though we shot
several at different times, I never witnessed any in-
stance of this. On one occasion a young one, ap-
parently only a week or two old, whose mother had
been shot, followed the huntsman home, and [I at-
tempted to raise it on cow’s milk. Ina few days
it appeared quite as tamd as a common calf, and
seemed to be thriving; but afterward, from some
unknown cause, it sickened and died. I heard,
however, of more than one instance in that part of
the colony, where the gnu, thus caught young, had
been reared with the domestic cattle, and had be-
come so tame as to go regularly out to pasture
with the herds, without exhibiting any inclination
to resume its natural freedom ; but, in consequence
of a tendency which the farmers say they evinced
to catch and to communicate to the cattle a dan-
gerous infection, the practice of rearing them as
curiosities has been abandoned. I know not if
this imputation be correct, but it is true that infec.
tious disorders do occasionally prevail to a most
destructive extent among the wild as well as the
domesticated animals in South Africa, and espe-—
cially among the tribes of larger antelopes.

“ There is another species of gnu found farther
to the northward, of which I saw a single speci-
men in the colony, which, in the shape of the horns
and some other particulars, still more resembles

f

hi
THE HARTEBEESTS. 289

ek
the ox. This specimen has been described by
Burchell under the name of antilope taurina.”

} ie

gms
, \
The Gnw’s Head.

Mr. Pringle has furnished us with the following
description of the hartebeest (antilope bubalis), which
also came under his observation.

* The hartebeest is one of the largest and hand.
somest of the antelope family. It is nearly of the
same height as the gnu, but of a more slender and
elegant shape. It was pretty numerous on the
mountains around our settlement, and not unfre.
quently furnished us with game. It had many
other enemies, I observed, and some of them only
less formidable than inan, the great destroyer. In
the nooks of the narrow ravines, through which the
wild game are wont to descend from the steep and
stony mountains, for change of pasturage, or to
drink at the fountains that ooze from their declivi-
ties, [ have frequently found fresh sculls and horns
of the hartebeest, those slight relics being all that
remained to indicate that there the lion had sur-
prised and rent his Pry: and that the voracious

B :

\t

— 2390 NATURAL HISTORY.

hyzna had followed and feasted on the fragments,

devouring even the bones, except the scull and a
few other unmanageable portions. Though the
common hyzna is no match in speed for the fleet
full-grown hartebeest, he probably picks up many
of the young ones, and is always sure at least of
the aged or infirm. ‘The hyzna dog is probably
still more destructive. Too slender to attack such
an animal as the hartebeest individually, these
‘dogs of the desert’ associate themselves in packs
to hunt down this and the other large antelopes.
I once witnessed a chase of this kind, in which a
noble hartebeest, hard pressed by a troop of these
‘wilde-honden’ (as the boors call them), dashed
across our garden and orchard ground, and on-
ward among our huts, at noonday. ‘The wild dogs,
on hearing the halloo that was raised by some of
the people who witnessed this scene, stayed their
quest for a brief space, as if alarmed; but, before
we could get a gun. or two to attack them, they
vigorously renewed the chase down the valley,
making a small circuit to avoid the houses; and,
as the poor antelope seemed sore spent, I have no
doubt that he would be speedily rum down, notwith-
standing the slight advantage he gained by our in-
terference. el aslo

“The largest of all the South African antelopes,
the Oreas, called by the colonists the eland or elk,
was also an inhabitant of our mountains, though
more rare than the gnu or hartebeest. This ani-
mal, though different in figure, is nearly as large
in size as an ordinary ox. It isa timid and harm-
less animal, and neither so swift nor so elegant as

THE CHAMOIS. 291

most of those of its tribe that I have mentioned.
When fat it runs so sluggishly that the boors in
hunting it will frequently ride close up, and, with-
out expending a single shot, stab it with their hunt-
ing-knives. Its flesh is not so dry as that of most
of the antelope tribe, and approaches more to the
flavour and quality of beef. From its value in
this respect, and its large size, combined with its
deficiency in means of self-protection, this animal
is now become very rare, even in the remotest parts
of the Cape Colony; and, in a short period, will
probably be altogether extirpated within its limits.”

A few years ago the king had several Chamois
in Windsor Great Park, but they soon died. In i
the following page is a portrait of one of those in- ely
dividuals. ©

The chamois inhabits the most inaccessible parts it
of the woody regions of the great mountains of i
Europe. He does not, as the bouquetin, climb to |
their most pointed summits, and he descends not

into the plains. Like the klipspringer of the Cape,

he is remarkable for the wonderful extent and pre- i
cision of his leaps. He bounds over the chasms ¥
of rocks; he springs from one projection to another |
with unerring certainty ; he throws himself froma ;

height of twenty or even thirty yards upon the
smallest ledge, where there is scarcely room for
his feet to plant themselves. ‘This extraordinary
power of balancing the body—of instantly finding
the centre of gravity—is a peculiarity of all the 1
goat tribe, to which the chamois is nearly allied. "
The ability of the eye to measure distances with
such undeviating exactness is associated with this

292 NATURAL HISTORY.

i a es a le al
a ae “ =

—

==

ia i i

Ste /

I> PSAG

The Chamois. Antilope Rupicapra, BuPFON.

f

Hpi
HAF ° (ih }

any

power of finding the centre of gravity. In the
chamois these are instinctive faculties, which he
possesses almost from the moment of his birth.
They are not the result of training ; for the young
chamois has only to acquire the necessary strength
to be able to imitate the feats of his more practised
companions. How different is the process by
which man obtains the full exercise of his physical
powers! The awkward efforts of the infant for
the first two years of his life are principally di-
rected to the acquisition of the ability, by constant
experiments, of poising his body, of ascertaining
the size and relative position of objects by the touch,

we .

SRS a eS

Ae

== tecioa es

, i

THE CHAMOIS. 293

and of measuring distances by the eye. Through.
out life, we cannot be placed in a new situation, in
which the exercise of these faculties is demanded,
without feeling how completely our powers are the
result of experience. We walk safely and easily
upon a plane surface, because we have learned to do
so; but if we slip from any elevation upon a nar-
row ledge, with what extreme difficulty do we
maintain our footing! Yet another man, possess-
ing originally no greater ability of balancing his
body, runs along a parapet without fear or danger.
Again, we are constantly mistrusting the distance
and size of objects. ‘The accuracy of the eye en-
tirely depends upon its practice. To one unac-
customed to the sea, a ship upon the horizon ap-
pears at no great distance ; the sailor can tell that
it is far away, and, pretty nearly, how many miles
1s Ol. The practice which is necessary to the
exercise of human vision is indeed wonderful ; but
the faculty is so gradually acquired, that we may
easily deceive ourselves into the belief that it is in-
stinctive. Dr. Thomas Brown has put this strong-
ly in his lectures: “In those striking cases which
are sometimes presented to us, of the acquisition of
sight in mature life, in consequence of a surgical
operation, after vision had been obstructed from in-
fancy, it has been found that the actual magnitude
and figure, and position of bodies, were to be learned
like a new language ; that all objects seemed equal-
ly close to the eye; and that a sphere and a cube,
of each of which the tangible figure was previously
known, were not so distinguishable in the mere
sensation of vision, that slide one could be said with
certainty to be the cube, and the other the sphere.
BB2

294 NATURAL HISTORY.

In short, what has been supposed, with every ap
pearance of probability, was demonstrated by ex.
periment—that we learn to see.””*

And yet man, by constant training, may attain an
excellence in the employment of his senses very
little inferior to the instinctive powers of the lower
animals. The chamois hunters of the Alps are
remarkable examples of what he may accomplish
by courage, perseverance, and constant experiment,
If man fairly bring his physical powers and his
mechanical aids into a contest even with such sur-
prising faculties as the chamois possesses, the tri-
umph is his; and this triumph shows us that there
are few things beyand the reach of human energy,

The chamois hunter sets out upon his expedition
of fatigue and danger generally in the night. His
object is to find himself at the break of day in the
most elevated pastures, where the chamois comes
to feed before the flocks shall have arrived there,
The chamois feeds only at morning and evening.
When the hunter has nearly reached the spot
where he expects to find his prey, he reconnoitres
with a telescope. If he finds not the chamois, he
mounts still higher; but if he discovers him, he en-
deavours to climb above him and to get nearer, by
passing round some ravine, or gliding behind some
eminence or rock. When he is near enough to
distinguish the horns of the animal (which are
small, round, pointed, and bent backward like a
hook, as in the portrait) he rests his rifle upon a
rock, and takes his aim with great coolness. He
rarely misses, ‘This rifle is often double-barrelled,
If the chamois falls, he runs to his prey, makes

* Lecture xxviii, : |

THE CHAMOIS. 295

sure of him by cutting the hamstrings, and ap.
plies himself to consider by what way he may best
regain his village. If the route is very difficult, he
contents himself with skinning the chamois ; but if
the way is at all practicable with a load, he throws
the animal over his shoulder, and bears it home to
his family, undaunted by the distance he has to go,
and the precipices he has to cross.

But when, as is more frequently the case, the
vigilant animal perceives the hunter, he flies with
the greatest swiftness into the glaciers, leaping with
incredible speed over the frozen snows and pointed
rocks. It is particularly difficult to approach the
chamois when there are many together. While
the herd graze, one of them is planted as a senti-
nel on the point of some rock, which commands all
the avenues of their pasturage ; and when he per-
ceives an object of alarm, he makes a sharp hissing
noise, at the sound of which all the rest run to-
wards him, to judge for themselves of the nature of
the danger. If they discover a beast of prey or a
hunter, the most experienced puts himself at their
head; and they bound along, one after the other,
into the most inaccessible places.

It is then that the labours of the hunter com.
mence ; for then, carried away by the excitement,
he knows no danger. He crosses the snows with-
out thinking of the abysses which they may cover ;
he plunges into the most dangerous passes of the
mountains ; he climbs up, he leaps from rock to
rock, without considering how he can return. The
night often finds him in the heat of the pursuit ; but
he does not give it up for this obstacle. He con-
siders that the chamois will stop during the dark-

296 NATURAL HISTORY.

ness as well as himself, and that on the morrow he
may again reach them. He passes then the night,
not at the foot of a tree, nor in a cave covered
with verdure, as does the hunter of the plain, but
upon a naked rock, or upon a heap of rough stones,
without any sort of shelter. He is alone, without
fire, without light; but he takes from his bag a
bit of cheese and some of the barley-bread which
is his ordinary food—bread so hard that he is
obliged to break it between two stones, or to cleave
it with the axe which he always carries with him
to cut steps which shall serve for his ladder up the
rocks of ice. His frugal meal being soon ended,
he puts a stone under his head, and is presently
asleep, dreaming of the way the chamois has taken.
He is awakened by the freshness of the morning
air; he arises, pierced through with cold; he
measures with his eyes the precipices which he
must yet climb to reach the chamois ; he drinks a
little brandy (of which he always carries a small
provision), throws his bag across his shoulder, and
again rushes forward to encounter new dangers.
These daring and persevering hunters often remain
whole days in the dreariest solitudes of the gla-
ciers of Chamouni; and during this time their fam-
ilies, and, above all, their unhappy wives, feel the
keenest alarm for their safety.

And yet, with the full knowledge of the dangers
to be encountered, the chase of the chamois is the
object of an insurmountable passion. Saussure
knew a handsome young man, of the district of
Chamouni, who was about to be married; and the
adventurous hunter thus addressed the naturalist :
‘My grandfather was killed in the chase of the

THE CHAMOIS. 2907

chamois; my father was killed also; and I am so
certain that I shall be killed also, that I call this
bag, which I always carry hunting, my winding.
sheet ; Iam sure that J shall have no other ; and yet,
if you were to offer to make my fortune upon the
condition that I should renounce the chase of the
chamois, I should refuse your kindness.”” Saussure
adds, that he went several journeys in the Alps with
this young man; that he possessed astonishing
skill and strength; but that his temerity was great-
er than either ; and that, two years afterward, he
met the fate which he had anticipated, by his foot
failing on the brink of a precipice to which he had
leaped. It is the chase itself which attracts these
people more than the value of the prey; it is the
alternation of hope and fear, the continual excite-
ment, the very dangers themselves, which render
the chamois-hunter indifferent to all other pleasures.
The same passion for hardy adventure constitutes
the chief charm of the soldier’s and sailor’s life ; and,
like all other passions, to be safe and innocent,
it must be indulged in great moderation, near akin
as it is to one of our most senseless and mischiey-
ous propensities, gambling.

The very few individuals of those who grow old
in this trade bear on their countenances the traces
of the life which they have led. They have a wild,
and somewhat haggard and desperate air, by which
they may be recognised i in the midst of a crowd.
Many of the superstitious peasants believe that they
are sorcerers ; that they have commerce with the
evil spirit, and that it is he that throws them over
the precipices. When the enormous glaciers and
summits of Mont Blanc are beheld from the val.

298 NATURAL HISTORY.

leys, it is indeed almost miraculous that any mortal
should be found hardy enough to climb them; and
it is not unnatural that a simple peasantry should
believe that something above human excitement
had inspired these perilous undertakings. To the
traveller, or to the native of the vale of Chamouni,
Mont Blanc is an object of awe and astonishment ;
and the devotion of the instructed, and the supersti-
tion of the unenlightend, are perhaps equally attri-
butes to the God of nature, when they thus look
upon one of the grandest of natural objects,

‘‘ The dread ambassador from earth to heaven.” -

The chamois is now getting rare in Switzer-
land, in consequence of the inhabitants being al-
lowed to hunt him at all seasons; but the race may
be expected again to multiply, as the old regula-
tions for determining the periods of hunting are
again introduced. ‘They are rarely caught alive,
and can only be tamed when taken very young.

DEER. 299

CHAPTER XIV.

DEER.

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The Red Deer.

Arter the account we have given of the hunt.
ing of the chamois, where the antelope is fairly pit-
ted against the man; strength for strength, strata-

Se ee

-

300 NATURAL HISTORY.

gem for stratagem, and danger for danger, how
poor must our modern huntings appear! A field
of eager sportsmen, fortified against a little fatigue
by every excitement of a morning meal, and mount-
ed upon the swiftest and surest horses, meet to pur-
sue a stag, that is brought to some favourable spot
ina cart. ‘The poor creature has probably been
hunted several times before ; for it is the object of
the huntsman to save him from the dogs if possi-
ble, that he may be again tormented. But he well
remembers the first fearful cry of the distant

hounds; he hears again the encouraging voices of

the men; the clatter of horses’ feet ring again in
his ear; he dreads that he shall find no river to
baffle his followers, who must ride to the nearest
bridge, while he swims fearlessly across the stream ;
he recollects that the sheltering wood was no pro-
tection to him, and that the dogs followed him even
to the shelter of the peasant’s hovel, when he threw
himself upon man for succour: he was rescued, it
is true, from their devouring teeth ; but he felt all
the agonies of anticipated death. And can the
creature thus renew such feelings without intense
suffering, or his pursuers so excite them without
cruelty ? In spite of all the trappings of modern
stag-hunting, it is just as unworthy in its principle
as the bull-baitings and dog-fights of the populace ;
for its object is the same—the torture of an unof-
fending creature for our own amusement. Emula-
tion in horsemanship is indeed pleasurable and use-

ful; but it is injurious in the moral sense to pur-

chase any advantage or gratification by the inflic-
tion of unnecessary misery upon an inferior being.

“THE RED DEER. 301

The various species of deer, as well as tne ante-
lopes, remain invariably in their original situation
~ when left in a state of nature. ‘Two species are
common to the north of the old and the new con.
tinents; five belong to North America; four to
America, south of the equator; four to Europe
and the continent of Asia; and fourteen to India,
to China, and to the Archipelagoes of the south-
east of Asia. |

Of the British deer, the only existing species are
the red deer (Cervus Elaphus), the roe (Cervus
Capreolus), and the fallow deer (Cervus Dama).

The red deer is about three and a half feet in

height ; the female goes with young eight months,

and produces one at a birth; the horns are branched,

round, and recurved. ee |

_ The roe is about two and a quarter feet high ;
the female goes with young five months and a half,

and produces two ata birth; the horns are branch-

ed, round, erect, with bifid summits.

The fallow deer, the most gentle of the deer
tribe, is smaller than the red deer; the female goes
with young eight months, and produces one or two,
and sometimes (though rarely) three at a birth.
The horns are branched, recurved, compressed,
and palmated at the top.

~The antlers of the deer fall off, and are annually
renewed. This peculiarity is a most singular
provision of nature ; and the mode in which the
process is effected offers many examples of animal
economy. We transcribe a description of the pre-
cess from Blumenbach’s “ Comparative Anatomy :”

«The annual reproduction of horns constitutes,
in many points of view, one of the most remarka-

Co

===3 : 7

302 NATURAL HISTORY. (|

ble phenomena of animal physiology. It affords a
most striking proof, first, of the power of the nu-
tritive process, and of the rapid growth which re.
sults from this process in warm-blooded animals ;
for the horn of a stag, which may weigh a quarter
of a hundred weight, is completely formed in ten
weeks; secondly, of the remarkable power of ab-
sorption, by which, towards the time of shedding
the old horn, a complete separation is effected of
the substance which was before so firmly united
with the frontal bone; thirdly, of a limited dura-
tion of life in a part of an animal entirely inde-
pendent of the life of the whole animal, which in
the stag extends to about thirty years ; fourthly,
of a change of calibre in particular vessels; for
the branches of the external carotid, which supply
the horn, are surprisingly dilated during its growth,
and recover their former dimensions when that
process has ceased ; fifthly, of a peculiar sympathy
which is manifested between the growth of the
horns and the generative functions.”

The translators of Blumenbach have added the
following note, in illustration of these curious phys-
iological facts :

“The word horn, which j is frequently applied in
English to the antlers of the deer kind, as well as
to the real horns of other genera,- would lead to
very erroneous notions on this subject. The antler
is a real bone; it is formed in the same manner,
and consists of the same elements, as other bones ;
its structure is also the same.

“It adheres to the frontal bone by its basis ; ; and
the substance of the two parts being consolidated
together, no distinction can be traced when the

THE RED DEER. 303

antler is completely organized. But the skin of
the forehead terminates at its basis, which is
marked by an irregular projecting bony circle ; and
there is neither skin nor periosteum on the rest of
it. The time of its remaining on the head is one
year; as the period of its fall approaches, a red-
dish mark of separation is observed between the
process of the frontal bone and the antler. ‘This
becomes more and more distinctly marked, until
the connexion is entirely destroyed.

“ The skin of the forehead extends over the pro-
cess of the frontal bone when the antler has fallen.
At the period of its regeneration, a tubercle arises
from this process, and takes the form of the future
antler, being still covered by a prolongation of the
skin. The structure of the part at this time is
soft and cartilaginous; it is immediately invested
_ by a true periosteum, containing large and numer-
ous vessels, which penetrate the cartilage in ev-
ery direction; and, by the gradual deposition of
ossific matter, convert it into a perfect bone.

“ The vessels pass through openings in the pro-
jecting bony circle at the base of the antler: the
formation of this part proceeding in the same ra-
tio with that of the rest, these openings are con-
tracted, and the vessels are thereby pressed, until
a complete obstruction ensues. ‘The skin and pe-
riosteum then perish, become dry, and fall off, the
surface of the antler remaining uncovered. At
the stated period it falls off, to be again produced,
always increasing in size.

“The horns are shed in the spring and repro.
duced in summer,’

304 NATURAL HISTORY. a

A remarkable provision of nature, which is pe-
culiar to deer and antelopes, has been described

by some naturalists and doubted by others, Mr.
White, with his usual accuracy of observation, has
noticed the additional sptracula, which, he says,
enabled the animal to breathe when ian i and
assist him when pursued.

“If some curious gentleman would procure the
head of a fallow deer, and have it dissected, he
would find it furnished with two spiracula, or

-breathing-places, besides the nostrils; probably

analogous to the puncta lachrymala in the human
head. When deer are thirsty, they plunge their
noses, like some horses, very deep under water
while in the act of drinking, and continue them in
that situation for a considerable time ; but, to ob-
viate any inconvenience, they can open two vents,
one at the inner corner of each eye, having a com-
munication with the nose. Here seems to be an
extraordinary provision of nature worthy our at-
tention, and which has not, that I know of, been
noticed by any naturalist ; for it looks as if these
creatures would not be ‘suffocated, though both
their mouths and nostrils were stopped. This cu-
rious formation of the head may be of singular ser-
vice to beasts of chase, by affording them free res-

_piration ; and no doubt these additionai nostrils are

thrown open when they are hard run. Mr. Ray —
observed that, at Malta, the owners slit up the nos-
trils of such asses as were hard worked ; for they
being naturally straight or small, did’ ‘not admit
air sufficient to serve them when they travelled or
laboured in that hot climate. And we know that
grooms and gentlemen of the turf think large nos-

THE DEER. 305

me
' trils necessary, and a perfection, in hunters and
running-horses.”

In the heads of deer and antelopes there are cav-
ities imbedded in a bony case, varying in size in
different species of these animals. The French
call them darmiers, believing them receptacles for
tears, of which the thinner part evaporating, a sub-
stance remains, called larmes de cerf. To this
circumstance may be attributed the belief of the
poets that the deer weeps. Sir Everard Home has

explained the construction of these larmiers.*

We have already mentioned the smallness and
peculiar hardness of the bone of the deer’s foot ; it
is this peculiarity which renders the animal as
strong ashe is fleet. The support and strength of
the joints of the feet of all animal bodies, according li
to Sir E. Home, depend less upon their own liga- if
ments than upon the action of the muscles whose ¢
tendons pass over them. He says: “This fact .
was strongly impressed on my mind in the early
part of my mental education, by seeing a deer

which leaped over the highest fences, and the joints I
of whose feet, when examined, were as rigid in d
every other direction but that of their motion as ¥i
the bone itself; but when the tendo Achillis, which

passed over the joint, was divided, with a view to ;

keep the animal from running away, the foot could
readily be moved in any direction, the joint no lon.
ger having the smallest firmness.”
The stag is sometimes domesticated, and the
fallow deer very often. The latter may be easily |
induced to live in stables; and he manifests a sort ;
* Comparative Anatomy, vol. iii., p. 245.
+ Ibid., vol. i., p. 96.
Cc 2 ‘

306 NATURAL HISTORY. a. as

of affection for the horse. At Newmarke
there was a deer which was accustome
to exercise with the race-horses ; and the creatur
was delighted to gallop round the course wi
in their morning training. | wes
The arrangement of the teeth of i various spe-
cies of deer and of the antelope tribes is generally
as follows, though — are conan exceptions >
Incisors, 2 2, Canine, $ 9-9, Molar, €x&. Total, 82.

ye ee ee ee ee

phil PE. «WA LP OP He

THE REINDEER. . 307

ii

CHAPTER XIII.

* THE REINDEER.

\t

SN
SS

OY
. SSA SS \) Y
‘Aa
SS

SS

= Me
Seti a
OPPIDIR WPS
The Reindeer. Cervus Tarandus, LINN2=us.—Cervus Rangifer,
Brissot.—Renne, BUFFON.

THE actual locality of the reindeer, determined
as it is by the temperature of the polar climates,
presents another of the many forcible examples of
the inseparable connexion of particular animals
with the wants of human society. The reindeer
has been domesticated by the Laplanders from the

308 NATURAL HISTORY.

earliest ages; and has alone rendered the
region in which this portion of mankind abides at
all supportable. The civilization of those extreme
northern regions, which is steadily advancing, en-
tirely depends upon the reindeer. All communi-
cation through the interior parts of Lapland is sus-
pended in summer ; and the inhabitants of Finmark
travel by land only in the winter season.

The traveller from Norway or Sweden may pro.
ceed with ease and safety even beyond the polar
circle; but when he enters Finmark he cannot stir
without the reindeer; and with this faithful ser-
vant, the Finmark dealer may travel from his na-
tive wilds, to dispose of his produce in the markets
of Torneo and Stockholm. ‘The reindeer alone
connects two extremities of a kingdom; and with.
out him, the comforts and the knowledge of civil-
ized life could never be extended over those coun-

4. i
S Le ea — ————<—<$<$< <r, Sak
————
TF px SP ¥
Ss ed —$——————
= Se 2 = ee
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Sern

tries which, during a greater part of the year, are
cut off from all other communication with the other
portions of mankind.*

_* See De Broke’s Travels in Lapland, p. 75.

dreary
en

THE REINDEER. 309

The inhabitants of Lapland are divided into two
classes; those who live upon the shore and subsist
by fishing, and those who wander through the sum-
mer and winter with no shelter but their tents, and
no provision but their reindeer. In summer the
wandering or mountain Laplander is compelled to
undertake the most arduous journeys to the coast
for the preservation of his deer. Mr. De Broke
has described these migrations :*

“ Whale Island, during the summer months, is
never without three or four families of mountain
Laplanders (Field-finner), with their herds of rein-
deer. The causes that induce, nay, even compel
these people to undertake their long and annual
migrations from the interior parts of Lapland to its
coast, though they may appear singular, are suffi-
ciently powerful. It is well known, from the ac-
counts of those travellers who have visited Lapland
during the summer months, that the interior parts
of it, particularly its boundless forests, are so in-
fested by various species of gnats and other insects,
that no animal can escape their incessant persecu-
tions. Large fires are kindled, in the smoke of
which the cattle hold their heads, to escape the at-
tack of their enemies; and even the natives them-
selves are compelled to smear their faces with tar,
as the only certain protection against their stings.
No creature, however, suffers more than the rein-
deer from the larger species (cestrus tarandi), as it
not only torments it incessantly by its sting, but even
deposites its egg in the wound it makes in its hide.
The poor anima] is thus tormented to such a degree,
that the Laplander, if he were to remain in the for-

* Travels in Lapland, p. 31.

8

|

-

ests during the months of June, July, and August,
would run the risk of losing the greater part of his
herd, either by actual sickness, or from the deer
fleeing of their own accord to mountainous situa-
tions to escape the gadfly. From these causes
the Laplander is driven from the forests to the
mountains that overhang the Norway and Lapland
coasts, the elevated situations of which, and the
A, cool breezes from the ocean, are unfavourable to
the existence of these troublesome insects, which,
though found on the coast, are in far less consider-
- able numbers there, and do not quit the valleys; so
that the deer, by ascending the highlands, can avoid
them.” |
The wild herds of reindeer ascend the mountains
in the summer to free themselves from these para-
sitical insects of the forest ; and the tame deer often
wander from their masters for the same object.
These insects, particularly the estrus, so terrify the
herds, that the appearance of a single one will ren- s
der them furious. Schreber, a celebrated natural-

310 NATURAL HISTORY.

= - =

Insects which attack the Reindeer.

ist, has represented these periodical tormentors of
the poor reindeer. The Laplanders say that one
of their objects in going to the coast is, that the deer

THE REINDEER. sll

Ynay drink the sea-water; and that he takes one
draught, which destroys the larve of the fly, but
never repeats it. _

According to the accounts of the people of Fin.
mark, the attacks of these fearful creatures are not
the only torments of the reindeer. An insect, or,
rather, worm, the furia infernaiis, originally men-
tioned by Linnzus, is said to produce the most
fatal effects upon the herds. Linnezeus, indeed, al-
tered his opinion late in life as to the existence
even of this worm; and the Swedish naturalists
now treat it as entirely fabulous. Dr. Clarke, how-
ever, supposes himself to have been wounded by
this very creature during his travels in Sweden.
The Laplanders themselves firmly believe in its
existence ; and its fatal powers, as represented by
these people, are thus described by De Broke:

“Tn 1823, the Laplanders are stated to have suf-
fered so greatly in their herds, that five thousand
head died from the sting of this creature ; and that
even the wolves and other animals that preyed upon
the dead carcasses caught the infection, and died
with the same symptoms. A Laplander who pos-
sessed five hundred deer, on perceiving the destruc-
tion among them, thought it best to kill the whole
herd; but so quickly did its ravages spread, that,
before he could accomplish his purpose, they all
died. Great numbers of cattle and sheep were
likewise destroyed by its attack, and it fell in some
degree upon the human species, a few having be-
come victims to it. A young girl, who was shear-
ing some sheep that had died from the attack of
the furia, felt, while thus employed, a sudden pain
in one of her fingers, which rapidly increased, and,

312 NATURAL HISTORY.

on examining the part, she found a small puncture
like the prick of a needle; her master, who was
by, had the presence of mind to cut the finger off
on the spet, and it was the means of saving her life.

“The pest is stated to have been confined to
Russian and Swedish Lapland, and did not spread
higher than Muonioniska. Norwegian Lapland,
fortunately, was not visited with this calamity ; and,
in order to prevent it from being introduced, all
furs, during the year of its prevalence, were forbid-
den to be purchased.’*

It is quite true that, during the summer of 1823, —
there was an extraordinary mortality among the
reindeer of Norway and Lapland ; but the better
| informed people attributed it, not to the furia in-
if Fernalis, but to some unwholesome quality of the
moss ; and the medical men at Stockholm consid-
ered the disease with which the herds had been at-
tacked as a particular variety of hydrophobia. The _
reindeer are also subject to inflammation of the
brain ; which probably arises from their great sen-
sibility to heat. In the hottest weather, the ther-
mometer rises, even at the North Cape, as high as:
90° of Fahrenheit.

‘The movements of the wandering Laplander are
determined by those of his deer. As camels con-
stitute the chief possession of an Arab, so do the
reindeer compose all the wealth of a Laplander,

“ The number of deer belonging to a herd is from

three hundred to five hundred; with these a Lap-

lander can do well, and live in tolerable comfort. -

He can make in summer a sufficient quantity of

cheese for the year’s consumption ; and, during the
* Travels, p. 99.

ny

THE REINDEER. 313

winter season, can afford to kill deer enough to sup.
ply him and his family pretty constantly with ven-
ison. With two hundred deer, a man, if his family
be but small, can manage to get on. If he have
but one hundred, his subsistence is very precarious,
and he cannot rely entirely upon them for support.
Should he have but fifty, he is no longer independ.
ent, or able to keep a separate establishment, but
generally joins his small herd with that of some
richer Laplander, being then considered more in
the light of a menial, undertaking the laborious of.-
fice of attending upon and watching the herd, bring-
ing them home to be milked, and other similar of-
fices, in return for the subsistence afforded him.’’”*
With this stock the Laplander wanders through
Saal variety of wild and beautiful scenery ;
ut he is little sensible to the impressions which
such regions produce upon the mind of an intelli-
gent traveller. The extremes of bodily fatigue and
want leave little room for the cultivation of the
mind; and the love of the sublime and beautiful of
nature belongs to an advanced stage of the intellect.
These rich summer scenes of Lapland are wonder-
fully enlivened by the presence of the wanderer and
his herds. Von Buch, a celebrated traveller, has
well described the evening milking-time : Feb
“Tt is a new and pleasing spectacle to seein the
evening the herd assembled round the gamme (en-
campment) to be milked. On all'the hills around,
everything is in an instant full of life and motion.
The busy dogs are everywhere barking, and bring-
ing the mass nearer and nearer, and the reindeer
bound and run, stand still, and bound again, in an
* De Broke, p. 45.
Dob

314 NATURAL HISTORY.

indescribable variety of movements. When the
feeding animal, frightened by the dog, raises his
head, and displays aloft his large and proud antlers,
what a beautiful and majestic sight! And when
he courses over the ground, how fleet and light are
his speed and carriage! We never hear the foot
on the earth, and nothing but the incessant crack-
ling of his knee joints, as if produced by a repetition
of electric shocks, a singular noise ; and from the
number of reindeer, by whom it is at once produced,
it is heard at a great distance. When all the herd,
consisting of three or four hundred, at last reach
the gamme, they stand still, or repose themselves,
or frisk about in confidence, play with their antlers
against each other, or in groups surround a patch
of moss browsing. When the maidens run about
with their milk vessels from deer to deer, the broth-
er or servant throws a bark halter round the antlers
of the animal which they point out to him, and
draws it towards them ; the animal generally strug.
gles, and is unwilling to follow the halter, and the
maiden laughs at and enjoys the labour it occasions,

. and sometimes wantonly allows it to get loose, that

it may be caught again for her; while the father
i mother are heard scolding them for their frol-
icsome behaviour, which has often the effect of .
scaring the whole flock. Who, viewing this scene,
would not think on Laban, on Leah, Rachel, and
Jacob? When the herd at last stretches itself to
the number of so many hundreds at once, ip
about the gamme, we imagine we are beholding an
entire encampment, and the commanding mind
which presides over the whole stationed in the
middle.” -

THE REINDEER. | 31d

The noise which the traveller describes as “ the
crackling of his knee joints,” is produced by the
contraction of the reindeer’s hoofs when the foot
is raised from the ground. ‘These hoofs are not
narrow and pointed, like those of the fallow deer,
which finds its food upon unyielding surfaces ; but
they are broad and spreading ; and thus, when the
reindeer crosses the yielding snows, the foot pre-
sents a large surface, and, like the snow shoe of
the Norwegians and Canadian Indians, prevents,
to a certain extent, the animal sinking as deeply as
it would if the hoof were small and compact.

Reindeer’s foot contracted. Reindeer’s foot expanded,

The Laplander’s summer lasts from about June
to September. ‘The herds and their owners depart
therefore from the coasts early in that month, that
they may take up their winter quarters before the
fall of the snows. As the winter approaches, the
coat of the reindeer begins to thicken in the most
remarkable manner, and assumes that lighter col-
our which is the great peculiarity of polar quad.
rupeds. During the summer the animal pastures
upon every green herbage, and browses upon the

316 NATURAL HISTORY.

shrubs which he finds in his march. In the winter,
his sole food is the Zichen or moss, which he in-
stinctively discovers under the snow. It is a sin-
cular, and now well-established fact, that the rein-
deer will eat with avidity the lemming or mountain
a: presenting one of the few instances of a rumi-

ng animal being in the slightest degree carniy-
orous. The extraordinary instinct with which the
reindeer discovers the lichen is well illustrated by
De Broke :

“The flatness of the country increased as we
proceeded, and at times it was even difficult to tell
whether we were moving on land or water, from the
uniformity of the white surface around us. In this
respect our deer were far better judges than our-
selves, as, though there might be a depth of some
feet of snow above the ice, wherever we stopped
for a few minutes upon any lake, in no one in-
stance did they attempt to commence their usual
search after their food ; yet, when upon land, their
natural quickness of smell enabled them to ascer-
tain, with almost unerr ng certainty, whether there
was any moss growing beneath them or not. By
the fineness of this sense of the animal the Lap-
landers are chiefly guided in fixing their different

winter-quarters; never remaining in those parts.

which they know with certainty produce but little
moss, from the indifference of their deer, and the
few attempts made by them in removing the snow.”
When the wig is fairly set in, the peculiar
value of the reindeer is felt by the Laplanders.
Without him, as we have already said, communica.
utterly suspended. Harnessed

tion would be almost
toa sledge, the reindeer will draw about 300, lbs. 3

‘ i

THE REINDEER. 317

but the Laplanders generally limit the burden to
240 lbs. The trot of the reindeer is about ten
miles an hour ; and their powers of endurance is
such, that journeys of one hundred and fifty miles
in nineteen hours are not uncommon. ‘There is a
portrait of a reindeer in the palace of Drotningholm
(Sweden), which is represented, upon an occasion
of emergency, to have drawn an officer with im-
portant despatches the incredible distance of eight
hundred English miles in forty-eight hours.* ‘This
event is stated to have happened in 1699, and the
tradition adds that the deer dropped down lifeless
upon his arrival. Pictet, a French astronomer,
who visited the northern parts of Lapland in 1769,
for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus,
was anxious to know the speed of the reindeer ;
and therefore started three reindeer in light sledg-
és for a certain short distance, which he accurate-
ly measured. The following was the result :

“The first deer performed 3089 feet, 8 inches,
and 26, in two minutes, being at the rate of near-
ly 19 English miles in an ae and thus accom.

lishing 25 feet, 8 inches, and ;2 Yoo 10 every second,

« The second did the same in three minutes ;
and the third and last deer, in three minutes and
twenty-six seconds. ‘The ground in this race was
nearly level.”

The reindeer requires considerable training to
prepare him for sledge-travelling ; and he always
demands an experienced driver. If the animal is
not well broken-in, he is unmanageable ; and if the
driver is inexpert, the deer has sagacity enough to
turn round and rid himself of him by the most fu-
rious assaults. Mr. de Broke sev

* De Broke’s Winter in Lapland.
Dpd2

-

318 NATURAL HISTORY.

inconvenience of ill-trained deer in his winter
journey across Lapland.

“The deer we had procured were as unmanage-
able and unruly as deer could well be, being none
of them well broken-in ; and our first set off was
xy no means a pleasant one, as, after tumblin
- the quickness of lightning down the steep bank of
the river, the deer proceeded at full gallop across
a very rough and breken country, with steep and
slippery descents. It was quite impossible, from
the nature of the ground, to prevent being fre-
quently rolled over in the pulk (sledge) ; and, when
this was the case, the strength and freshness of the
deer, and the good order of the snow, which was
very hard, made them regard very little the addi-
tional weight caused by the prostrate position of
the sledge ; so that they continued to follow, at full
speed, the rest of the deer, leaving the unfortunate
wight at their heels to find his balance as well as
he could.* Notwithstanding that which had been
harnessed to my pulk was by no means a lamb in
quiteness, [had good reason to congratulate myself
upon having escaped the animal which one of the
party had to his share, and which was a deer of the
wild breed, that had been caught when young by
the Laplanders. In size it was larger than the
others, thinner, with more appearance of bone, and
considerably stronger. With respect to any com.
mand over it, this was quite out of the question ;
and it dragged pulk and driver along with the

test ease wherever it pleased.” —
nd e instances of resistance to their
ivers ly exceptions to the general character
: irawn is strapped to the pulk, :

"7 he

4
_ a ee _-

- a a , ek

ae

e

THE REINDEER. 319

of the reindeer. He is ordinarily so docile that he
scarcely needs any direction, and so persevering
that he toils on, hour after hour, without any re-
freshment except a mouthful of snow, which he
hastily snatches. “ We again resumed our course,
the deer appearing no way fatigued, and proceed.
ing so steadily and quietly that the act of driving
them was merely holding the rein, which at last
became so tedious that some of the party behind
lashed their deer to the sledge before, the whole
keeping up a long steady trot. This is the usual
travelling pace of the reindeer when performing
long journeys; for though, occasionally, the animal
may proceed ata gallop for some miles on first
starting, or in those situations where the snow is
very good, it is natural to suppose it will gradually
relax its pace. The speed of the party, however,
is entirely dependant upon the foremost deer, by
which the motions of those behind are almost en-
tirely regulated; and I observed that, when we
first set off in the morning, the instant it had its
head at liberty, it almost invariably commenced a
full gallop, the rest all following at a similar pace,
as if moved by one common impulse. This was
kept up by them as long as they remained unex.
hausted, the driver having little power to stop the
animal, from the rein being merely attached in the
manner it is to the head. The eagerness of the
deer to set off is frequently followed by ludicrous
_ scenes, the driver being often placed in an awkward
situation if he be inattentive, and do not happen to
have the rein in his hand at the moment.”*
The obstinacy which the reindeer sometimes dis-
* De Broke, Pp. 8. +

¥,
—.

a)

320 NATURAL HISTORY.

Lhe

plays is the preservation of his driver. The great
difficulty is to separate him from his companions,
or to prevent him joining the herds which he sees
upon his track. Whentravelling, if the distance be-
tween the foremost and hindmost deer be great,

and the guide make a turn to the right or left, in-

stead of cutting across to save distance, the whole of

the deer in the rear continue on to the spot where
the turn was made. ‘This gregarious disposition is
given him for his protection against the danger of a
solitary state, and the Laplander avails himself of it
when he loses his road, or is sepanyies from those
with whom he travels.

The mode of hunting the wild reindeer by the
Laplanders, the Esquimaux, and the Indians of
North America, have been accurately described by
various travellers. We select the following ac-
counts from the interesting narratives of Captain
Lyon and Captain Franklin. Captain Lyon says:

“The reindeer visits the polar regions at the lat-
ter end of May or the early part of June, and re.

mains until late in September. On his first arrival -

he is thin, and his flesh is tasteless; but the short
is sufficient to fatten him two or three
inches on the haunches. When feeding on the

level ground, an Esquimaux makes no attempt to

approach him ; but, should a few rocks be near, the
wary hunter feels secure of his prey. Behind one
of these he cautiously creeps, and, having laid him-
self very close, he, with his bow and ry fore
him, imitates the bellow of the dee ling
to each other. Sometimes, for nore om mplete de:
ception, the hunter wears his deerskin coat and
hood so drawn i head as to resemble, in a

_ ee aii

&.

THE REINDEER. 321

great measure, the imatifpocting animals he is en-

ficing. Though the bellow proves a considerable
attraction, yet, if a man has great patience, he may
do without it, and may be equally certain that his
prey will ultimately come to examine him; the
reindeer being an inquisitive animal, and, at the
same time, so silly, that, if he sees any suspicious
ebject which is not actually chasing him, he will
gradually, and after many caperings, and forming
repeated circles, approach nearer and nearer to it.

The Esquimaux rarely shoot until the creature is
within twelve paces, and I have frequently been
told of their being killed at a much shorter distance.
It is to be observed, that the hunters never appear
openly, but employ stratagem for their purpose,
thus, by patience and ingenuity, rendering their
rudely-formed bows and still worse arrows as ef-
fective as the rifles of Europeans. When two
men hunt in company, they sometimes purposely
' show themselves to the deer; and when his atten-
tion is fully engaged, walk slowly away from him,
one before the other. ‘The deer follows ; and, when
the hunters arrive near a stone, the for emost drops
behind it and prepares his bow, while his compan-
ion continues walking steadily forward. This lat-
ter the deer still follows unsuspectingly, and thus
passes near the concealed man, who takes a delib-
erate aim and kills the animal. When the deer
assemble in herds, there are particular passes which
they invariably take, and, on being driven to them,
are killed by arrows by the men, while the women
with shouts drive them to the water. Here they
swim with the ease and activity of water-dogs, the

een

people in kayaks chasing and easily spearing them :

~

322 NATURAL HISTORY.

the carcasses float, and the hunter then presses for-
ward and kills as many as he finds in his track.
No springs or traps are used in the capture of these
animals, as is practised to the southward, in conse-
quence of the total absence of standing wood.”*
_ Captain Franklin describes the mode in which
the Dog-rib Indians kill the reindeer, which he had
from Mr. Wentzel, who resided long among that
people :

«lhe hunters go in pairs, the foremost man car- -
rying in one hand the horns and part of the skin of
the head of a deer, and in the other a small bundle
of twigs, against which he from time to time rubs
the horns, imitating the gestures peculiar to the
animal. His comrade follows, treading exactly in
his footsteps, and holding the guns of both in a hor-

-izontal position, so that the muzzles project under

the arms of him who carries the head. Both hunt-
ers have a fillet of white skin round their foreheads,
and the foremost has a strip of the same round his
wrists. They approach the herd by degrees, rais-
ing their legs very slowly, but setting them down
swhat suddenly after the mazaer of a deer,
always taking care to lift their right or left feet
simultaneously. If any of the herd leave off feed.
ing to gaze upon this extraordinary phenomenon,
it instantly stops, and the head begins to play its
part by licking its shoulders, and performing other
necessary movements. In this way the hunters
attain the very centre of the herd without exciting
suspicion, and have leisure to single out the fattest.
The hindmost man then pushes ae, his com.
rade’s gun, the head is dropped, and they both fire

Private Journal,

Pa THE REINDEER. 323

nearly at the same instant. The deer scamper off,
the hunters trot after them; in a short time the
poor animals halt, to ascertaill the cause of their
terror; their foes stop at the same moment, and,
having loaded as they ran, greet the gazers with a
second fatal discharge. The consternation of the
deer increases; they run to and fro in the utmost
confusion ; and sometimes a great part of the herd
is destroyed within the space of a few hundred
yards.”

In a country which affords such an uncertain
supply of food, and whose climate is so severe =
through a great part of the year as Lapland, the
progress of civilization can never be very consid-
erable. ‘The people must, of necessity, lead a wan-
dering life, uniting the hunting and the pastoral
character ; but incapable, from physical causes, of
pursuing the arts of agriculture, or entering largely
into the communications of commerce. But what
civilization exists or may exist among them, is |
wholly to be ascribed to their best possession, the F
reindeer. It is not, therefore, incompatib ue’

*

been rach and is supported, to believe tha
reindeer has been specially bestowed upon the in-
habitants of the polar regions as an improvement
of their necessary lot, in the same way that the
locality of the camel has been fixed in the sandy
and stony deserts of Asia and Africa. The poor s
Laplander knows the value of the faithful creature
which affords him food, clothing, and the means of
transport; and he offers his homage of thanksgiving
to the Great Author of nature, who has given him

324 NATURAL HISTORY.

this companion of his wanderings. Whether the
native of the polar regions hunt the wild deer amid
the icy mountains, be hurried by his aid across the
frozen wastes, or wander with his family and his
_ herds tili the long winter begins, almost without
bl gradation, to succeed the short summer, the
lives of the Laplander and of the reindeer are in-
separably united.

f\((
Ube Va e

\ AN WS ae

ev AG
>= j i TP > . wv “

Lapland Family returning from the Coast.

sg

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