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ms- occailôn can the byoena cants h iv e, in fo warm a climate as that he inhabits, for fo hairy and warama covering ? This however may, perhaps, be extremely neceffary in the cold caverns of rocks, and the fobterraneous holes which are allotted to this béait of prey for his habitation. It focms to me likewife to be very ferviceable in the cold, dark, and rainy nights, which are the principal times for this animal to hunt in. Times that moreover, are probably very critical for ftich gazèils ând antilopes as are fick and fuperannU- atéd. But may not this fur likewife icrve to take off from thé iharpriéfs o f this animal’s hunger ? A good cover for a hôrfe in winter is, according to the ufual expreflion, equal to hâlf its food : no# nature, whofe riches and bounty we acknowledge in other particulars, does not ihow a lefs careful provifion in regard to the animal I am fpeaking of. It is nécèffàry that the animal kingdom ihoùld be kept in due Order and a j uft equilibrium \ and the makes ufe o f certain animals for this purpofê, and therefore has endued the hyæna with a wonderful degree "of vigilance, with other means to anfwcr thefe her intentions to their full exteht ; bfft being unwilling, and indeed too generous, perpetually to làviffi the more inoffenfive part of the animal creation to the utmoft ftretch o f this creature’s voracious appetite, ffie hits upon other methods between whiles to affwage and damp it. In the fafoe manner as to the other beafts o f prey, the has given to the Wolf likewife the faculty of fleeping out the greateft part o f its life, by which means it eats the lefs ; and this creature’s warm fur, does not a little promote nature’s intentions in this refpeit. The The lion, indeed, is now almoft extirpated from this part of the country; though it fometimes happens, that WvW one or two of them come hither farther from the northwards. One of thefe animals was faid to have done much mifchief at about eleven miles diftance from the bath, at the time that I was there. Z a C H A P .


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