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they feed on lichens which hang from the trees, and on the long grass of the swamps. The males do not usually go so far north as the females. Columns, consisting of eight or ten thousand of these caribous, so numerous are they in North America, may be seen annually passing from north to south in the spring, infested and attacked in their progress by numbers of wolves, foxes, and other predaceous quadrupeds, which attack and devour the stragglers.

"The prong-horned antelope,* as well as the reindeer, appears to go northward in the summer, and return to the south in winter.

"Dr Richardson remarks to me in a letter:- The musk-ox and rein-deer feed chiefly on lichens, and therefore frequent the barren lands and primitive rocks, which are clothed with these plants. They resort, in winter, when the snow is deep, to the skirts of the woods, and and feed on the lichens which hang from the trees; but, on every favourable change of weather, they return to the barren grounds. In summer, they migrate to the moist pastures on the sea-coast, and eat grass; because the lichens on the barren lands are then parched by the drought, and too hard to be eaten. The young grass is, I suppose, better fitted for the fawns, which are dropt about the time the deer reach the coast.' In all this, we see the hand of Providence, directing them to those places where the necessary sustenance may be had."+

Mr Kirby might have added to this latter observation, another, which seems to be not less striking, and which we have already noticed, in reference to some of the winged tribes ;-that the chief reason why the rein-deer is taught to seek the north for the birth-place of its young, is, that here the latter are comparatively unmolested by those ferocious beasts of prey, which inhabit the more southerly regions, and which would assuredly greatly diminish their numbers, if they did not entirely exterminate the race, were the fawns to reside in the neigh

* Antelope furcata. ↑ Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 94.

bourhood of these hordes of enemies, before they had acquired sufficient swiftness and strength to elude pursuit. This provision of Providence is truly wonderful. At the time appointed for the dropping of their young, the food of the rein-deer, as well as of the musk-ox, is to be found in abundance, at a distance from the chief haunts of their natural enemies; and thus these peaceful tribes are led, by a kind of double instinct, to the preservation of their species, both as regards its maintenance and reproduction.

In speaking of the migrations of the rein-deer, I must not omit to mention a striking peculiarity, which belongs to this as well as some other of the more intelligent species of animals: their motions appear to be directed by leaders of their own species, whom they implicitly obey, and who head their march. As they are gregarious animals, such an instinct must be exceedingly useful to them, in the unfrequented wildernesses through which they travel. They will thus profit by the experience of their captain, who is always probably one of the oldest and most knowing of the herd; for, that many of the inferior animals do learn by experience, and thus show a sagacity above mere instinct, it is impossible to doubt. The same subjection to leaders, in their movements, is observable in the elephant. The Hottentots told Mr Pringle, that, in the dense thorny forests, the great bull elephants always march in the van, bursting through the jungle, treading down the prickly brushwood, and breaking off with their trunks the larger branches that obstruct their passage, while the females and younger part follow them in single file.

That the younger or more feeble should voluntarily subject themselves to the guidance of the stronger, indicates a fine instinct; but it is not so surprising in the case of the elephant, where it would appear that all the largest males of the herd take the precedence, as it is in the instance of the rein-deer, who seem to select a single leader, and obey him, as if he were invested with lawful

authority. By what principle, whether of instinct or of something approaching nearer to the faculty of reason, this sagacious race look up, with common consent, to one individual of the herd, it seems difficult to determine; but, however this may be, it does not less display the paternal care of the Creator. Something approaching to the same habit, is found in other gregarious animals. The Mongalian antelopes have their leader, whom they follow in regular files. The old ram of the flock,—the bull among the kine,—the dunghill-cock, who has proved his superior prowess and courage,-each, in its own department, exercises a sway-approaching, in the last mentioned, to a species of petty despotism—which indicates an inferior degree of the same principle. Indeed, were we better acquainted with the habits of gregarious animals, the remarkable property of subjection to a superior, would probably be found to be far more extended, than may at first sight appear; for, wherever living beings congregate and act in concert, some presiding intellect, if not absolutely necessary, is yet of great utility; and it is a new instance of the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator, that, where He has been pleased to bestow the social instinct, He should also have so generally bestowed a quality, by which the peace and welfare of the respective communities are so essentially promoted ; and that, among the various tribes of lower animals, from the mighty elephant to the tiny bee-the most wonderful of them all the important principle of subordination should be so widely diffused.

SEVENTH WEEK-FRIDAY.

HYBERNATION.-OF QUADRUPEDS-THEIR CLOTHING.

ONE obvious disadvantage arising from the change of climate from heat to cold, is the effect on the bodily

frame, which, at one season, is oppressed with the fervid rays of an almost vertical sun, and, at another, made to shiver under the biting blast of a wintry sky. It was not consistent with Divine Wisdom, that this inconvenience should be altogether compensated for; but the contrivances by which it is alleviated, and rendered tolerable, are truly wonderful. One of the most familiar of these contrivances, is a change from summer to winter clothing.

Man is born naked, but his Creator has endowed him with rational powers, which enable him to procure a dress suited to the various climes in which he is destined to live, and to change it with the changing weather, or his altered residence. The lower animals, not being favoured with this high attribute, have their wants, with respect to clothing, attended to in another way. Those which reside under the burning suns of the tropics, are remarkable for their scanty covering of hair, and the total absence of wool; while animals of the very same species, when resident in colder countries, are found to be clothed with a warmer covering, which becomes still more abundant and woolly as we approach the Polar Regions. The remarkable change, in this respect, which takes place within a very limited distance, and under no very violent change of temperature, may be exemplified by comparing the strong and thin bristles of the Devonshire swine, with the furry coat of those of the Highland breed. As an instance of this beneficent law of Nature, in a more extensive range, we may take the sheep, whose covering, in the tropical regions, is a scanty coat of hair, which, on the alpine ranges of Spain, becomes a fine soft and silky wool; in the mainland of Britain, is changed into a fleece, coarser, indeed, but thicker, and better adapted to resist the vicissitudes of our changeable weather; in the Shetland Islands, undergoes another transformation, still more capable of resisting the cold; and, in Iceland, and other regions verging toward the Pole, acquires the character of a thick fur, interspersed with

long and coarse hair,-a provision which is common to the clothing of numerous northern tribes, and which seems admirably calculated at once to foster the animal heat, to give free passage to the insensible perspiration, and to serve as a protection from the penetrating rains.* Now, what we wish the reader particularly to remark is, that effects similar to those which are produced on the clothing of animals by a change of climate, are, to a certain extent, produced also by the different seasons of the year. There is a beneficent adaptation, in this respect, to the alternations of heat and cold, in the same country. Examples of this wise provision, among our domestic animals, are familiar to every farmer. The horse, the cow, and the sheep, when exposed to the open air, all acquire a rough coat in winter, which they throw off as the warm weather advances, being then supplied with a thinner and sleeker covering; and, what is remarkable, the shagginess, and consequent heat, of their clothing is proportioned, in each species, to the extent of their exposure, and the intensity of the cold. So much is this the case, that it has been alleged, probably, however, with some degree of exaggeration, that, "if we were to look at the horses, for example, of the farmers on a market-day in winter, we might determine the relative temperature of their respective farms, from the relative quantity of clothing provided by Nature for the animals which live on them." The dealers in fur are well acquainted with the change we are now considering. In summer, the fur of those animals which are valued for the possession of this article of commerce, is too thin and short to be an object of pursuit; but, as soon as the frost and snow begin to show themselves, a rapid alteration takes place, and the fur is then said to have suddenly ripened. This is remarkably the case in the hare and rabbit.

Another beneficent provision of the Creator, for alle

* See Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 64. See also Scripture Geology, p. 349.

† Edinburgh Encyclopedia article Hybernation.

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