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most bulky land animal with which naturalists are acquainted, is the hippopotamus, or river horse. It is peculiar to Africa, and inhabits the fresh waters of that continent. It formerly existed in Lower Egypt, but has long since disappeared from that district. Mr. Bruce makes mention of hippopotami as existing in the lake Tzana, exceeding twenty feet in length. It would be hard to limit the growth of this naturally gigantic species; but the largest ever killed by Colonel Gordon, an experienced hippopotamist, did not exceed eleven feet eight inches. Mr. Desmoulins regards the species of Senegal as differing from those of the more southern parts of Africa. These animals are chiefly valuable on account of their ivory tusks, which, being harder than those of the elephants, and not so subject to turn yellow, are much esteemed by dentists. Their hides are formed into bucklers by several of the African tribes.

The aspect of the zebra is too familiarly known to require description. It is one of the most fancifully adorned of all known quadrupeds; but the beauty of its external appearance is its chief merit, as its disposition is wayward and capricious in the extreme. With the

exception of one or two instances, in which persevering individuals have succeeded in subduing the stubbornness of its nature, it has not been rendered subservient

to the purposes of the human race. It is a mountainanimal, called dauw by the Hottentots, and is scarcely ever seen on plains.

The zebra of the plains, although only recently cha`racterized as a distinct kind, is in fact a better known and more abundant species than the other. It is chiefly distinguished by the want of rings upon the legs. "I stopped," says Mr. Burchell," to examine these zebras with my pocket telescope: they were the most beautifully marked animals I had ever seen; their clean sleek limbs glittered in the sun, and the brightness and regularity of their striped coat presented a picture of extraordinary beauty, in which probably they are not surpassed by any quadruped with which we are at present acquainted. It is indeed equalled in this particular by the dauw, whose

stripes are more defined and regular, but which do no offer to the eye so lively a coloring."

The quagga is more nearly allied to the zebra of the plains than to that of the mountains. It lives in troops in the neighborhood of the Cape, and, in common with the zebra, is frequently found in company with ostriches. The wary disposition of these birds, and their great quickness of sight, are supposed to be serviceable to the congregated group in warning them of the approach of their enemies.

Very few animals of the deer kind, properly so called, are found in Africa. The red deer, however (Cervus elaphrus,) one of the noblest of the tribe, and the most stately of all the wild animals still indigenous to Britain, occurs in some of its northern quarters. But these it is not improbable were imported, at some unknown period, from Europe.

Before proceeding to the more abundant family of the antelopes, of which Africa is the great emporium, we shall mention, as a species entirely peculiar to this continent, the giraffe, or camelopard, the tallest, and in every other respect, one of the most singular of quadrupeds. Its appearance is too familiar to our readers to require description. We shall merely state that it is a timid and gentle animal, feeding principally on the leaves of trees, (especially those of the genus Mimosa,) and inhabiting the plains of Central and Southern Afri ca. Its gait, or mode of progression, is described as extraordinary by Mr. Lichtenstein. "We had scarcely travelled an hour when the Hottentots called our attention to some object on a hill not far off on the left hand, which seemed to move. The head of something appeared almost immediately after, feeding on the other side of the hill, and it was concluded that it must be that of a very large animal. This was confirmed, when after going scarcely a hundred steps farther, two tall, swan-necked giraffes stood almost directly before us. Our transports were indescribable, particularly as the creatures themselves did not perceive us, and therefore gave us ful time to examine them, and to prepare for an earnes nd serious chase. The one was smaller

and of a paler color than the other, which Vischer immediately pronounced to be a colt, the child of the larger. Our horses were saddled, and our guns loaded in an instant, when the chace commenced. Since all the wild animals of Africa run against the wind, so that we were pretty well assured which way the course of these objects of our ardent wishes would be directed, Vischer, as the most experienced hunter, separated himself from us, and by a circuit took the animals in front, that he might stop their way, while I was to attack them in the rear. I had almost got within shot of them when they perceived me, and began to fly in the direction we expected. But their flight was so beyond all idea extraordinary, that, between laughter, astonishment, and delight, I almost forgot my designs upon the harmless creature's lives. From the extravagant disproportion between the height of the fore to that of the hinder parts, and of the height to the length of the animal, great obstacles are presented to its moving with any degree of swiftness."

Čamelopards were known to the Romans, and were exhibited in the Circæan Games by Cæsar the dictator. The emperor Gordian afterward exhibited ten at a single show; and tolerably accurate figures of this animal, both in a browsing and grazing attitude, have been handed down by the Prænestine pavement.

(To be continued.)

EXAMPLES FROM HISTORY.

ANGER.

Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go; lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.

PASSION is a fever of the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us. It is the threshold of madness and insanity; indeed, they are so much alike, that they sometimes cannot be distinguished; and their effects are often equally fatal. The first step to moderation is to perceive that we are falling into a passion. It is much easier wholly to prevent ourselves from falling into a passion, than to keep it within just bounds; that

which few can moderate, almost any body can prevent. Envy and wrath shorten life; and anxiety bringeth age before its time. We ought to distrust our passions, even when they appear the most reasonable. Who overcomes his passion, overcomes his strongest enemy. If we do not subdue our anger, it will subdue us. A passionate temper renders a man unfit for advice, deprives him of his reason, robs him of all that is great or noble in his nature, destroys friendship, changes justice into cruelty, and turns all order into confusion.

EXAMPLES.

AUGUSTUS, who was prone to anger, received the following lesson from Athenodorus the philospher :-that so soon as he should feel the first emotions toward an

ger he should repeat deliberately all the letters of the alphabet; for that anger was easily prevented, but not so easily subdued. To repress anger, is a good method to turn the injury into a jest. Socrates having received a blow on the head, observed, that it would be well if people knew when it were necessary to put on a helmet. Being kicked by a boisterous fellow, and his friends wondering at his patience, "What," said he, "if an ass should kick me, must I call him before a judge?" Being attacked with opprobrious language, he calmly observed, that the man was not yet taught to speak respectfully

CESAR having found a collection of letters written by his enemies to Pompey, burnt them without reading: "For," said he, "though I am upon my guard against anger, yet it is safer to remove its cause."

ANTIGONUS, King of Syria, hearing two of his soldiers reviling him behind his tent, "Gentlemen," said he, opening the curtain, "remove to a greater distance, for your king hears you."

A FARMER, who had stepped into his field to mend a gap in a fence, found at his return the cradle, where he had left his only child asleep, turned upside down, the clothes all bloody, and his dog lying in the same place, besmeared also with blood. Convinced by the sight that the creature had destroyed the child, he dashed out

its brains with the hatchet in his hand; then turning up the cradle, he found the child unhurt, and an enormous serpent laying dead upon the floor, killed by that faithful dog which he had put to death in blind passion.

FIELD MARSHAL TURENNE, being in great want of provisions, quartered his army by force in the town of St. Michael. Complaints were carried to the Marshal de la Ferte, under whose government that town was; who being highly disobliged by what was done to his town without his authority, insisted to have the troops instantly dislodged. Some time thereafter, La Ferte, seeing a soldier of Turenne's guards out of his place, beat him severely. The soldier, all bloody, complaining to his general, was instantly sent back to La Ferte with the following compliment: "That Turenne was much concerned to find his soldier had failed in his respect to him, and begged the soldier might be punished as he thought proper.' The whole army was astonished; and La Ferte himself, being surprised, cried out, "What! is this man to be always wise, and I always a fool?"

CLYTUS, was a person whom Alexander held very dear, as being the son of his nurse, and one who had been educated together with himself. He had saved the life of Alexander at the battle near the river Granicus, and was by him made the Prefect of a province : but he could not flatter, and detesting the effeminacy of the Persians, at a feast with the king he spake with the liberty of a Macedonian. Alexander transported with anger slew him with his own hands; though when his heat was over, he was with difficulty restrained from killing himself for that fault which his sudden fury had excited him to commit.

HEROD, the Tetrarch of Judea, had so little command over his passion, that upon every slight occasion his anger would transport him into absolute madness. In such a desperate fit he killed Josippus. Sometimes he would be sorry, and repent of the folly and injuries he had done when anger had clouded his understanding, and soon after commit the same outrages, so that none about him were sure of their lives a moment.

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