' 77S- o f fait. We were obliged to wadea good wav into it, and al- December. 0 ° j r* U y V though the fait dried and cryitallized upon our legs and ieet, •till at night we found water to waih it off with, yet no ill effects enfued from i t : a circumftance which I thought proper to mention, for the encouragement of fuch as may 'hereafter colledt infefts in this or other places of the fame nature. That jjeculiar infect, the citnex paradoxus, which I have defcribed and given a drawing o f in the Swediih Tranf- adtions, (Vol. XXXVIII. p. 235,) *1 difcovered at this place, as at noon-tide I fought for ihelter among the branches o f a ihrub from the intolerable heat o f the fun. Though the air was now extremely ftill and calm, fo as hardly t® have ihaken an afpen leaf, yet I thought I faw a little withered, pale, crumpled leaf, eaten as it were by caterpillars, flittering from the tree. This appeared to me fo very extraordinary, that I thought ;it worth my while fuddenly to quit my verdant bower in order to contemplate i t ; and I could fcarcely believe my I eyes, when I faw a live infedt, in ihape and colour refembling the fragment o f a withered leaf, with the edges turned up and eaten away, as it were, by caterpillars, and at the fame time all over befet with prickles. Nature, by this peculiar form, has certainly extremely well defended and concealed, as it were in a malk, this infedt from birds and its other diminutive foes; in all probability with a view to preferve it, and employ it for ibme important office in the fyffem o f her oeconomy; a fyftem with which we are too little acquainted, in general too little inveftigate, and, in every part of it, can never fufficiently admire with * See likewife Plate V II , e f this Volume. that that refpedt and veneration which we owe to the great Au- _ thor o f nature and Ruler of the univerfe. At night we came to Kuga, a little river, the water of which was brackiffi ; but fome good and freffi water was found in a well hard by it. Here likewife we had a hafty glimpfe of two hares, which feemed to refemble the ordinary hares of Europe. My companion, who was fubjedt to a fpitting o f blood, happened here to be much troubled with this complaint; a complaint to which the animal diet he had been accuftomed to during the whole journey, together with the fatigue he had undergone, and the fcorching heat of the fun, had necef- farily difpofed him. Bleeding, together with a little faltpetre ; and the; water from this fpring, were the only means, (and thofe not ill adapted to the purpofe,) which we fortunately had at hand for his recovery in this defert place. Upon the whole, I took as much care o f him as I poffibly could on an open plain, with no other canopy than the iky. The finenefs of the weather, together with the coolnefs of the night, and above all his utter averfion to all fick- nefs, circumftanced as we were, I believe did not a little contribute towards his fpeedy recovery. The next morning, however, when, in order to make a trial of his ftrength, he walked a few hundred paces from our baiting-place, his life was in ftill greater and more imminent danger. This was from a herd of young cattle, which, by way of experiment, had been left in this place, under the care of a ilave, and b'eing at that time unufed to the fight o f any human creature befides, had like to have gored him to death. Thefe fierce animals then, making a femi- Vo l. II. D circle
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