Indirect Benefits, 149 



This scale of beings ; holds a rank, which lost 



Would break the chain, and leave a gap behind 



Which Nature's self would rue." . 



One, and indeed the chief, chxumstance which binds ani- 

 mals so closely is, the dependence each has upon another for 

 a supply of necessary food. On contemplating this part of 

 creation we behold a scene of havoc and devastation per- 

 petually and every where going on, so that " there is not," as 

 Smellie has remarked, " perhaps a single species of ani- 

 mated beings, whose existence depends not, more or less, 

 upon the death and destruction of others." That this order 

 of things, however cruel it may appear to us, is subservient to 

 the good of the whole, cannot admit of any doubt ; and it is 

 my purpose, in the present letter, to convince you by some 

 detail of facts, that molluscous animals in this relation play 

 a not unimportant part. But, as it would be tedious to enu- 

 merate all or the greater portion of the animals to which they 

 furnish nutriment, we shall confine ourselves to those which 

 possess some peculiar interest, or which minister directly to 

 the luxuries or necessities of man. 



To commence with quadrupeds. It is nothing surprising 

 that the different species of walrus, inhabitants of ocean, 

 should feed partly on shellfish, but perhaps you would not 

 expect to find among their enemies animals strictly terrestrial. 

 Yet the oran otang and the preacher monkey often descend to 

 the sea to devour what shellfish they may find strewed upon 

 the shores. The- former, according to Carreri Gemelli, feed 

 in particular on a large species of oyster, and fearful of insert- 

 ing their paws between the open valves, lest the oyster should 

 close and crush them, they first place a tolerably large stone 

 within the shell, and then drag out their victim with safety. 

 The latter are no less ingenious. Dampier saw several of 

 them take up oysters from the beach, lay them on a stone, 

 and beat them with another till they demolished the shells. 

 Wafer observed the monkeys in the Island of Gorgonia to 

 proceed in a similar manner * ; and those of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, if we are to credit La Loubere, perpetually 

 amuse themselves by transporting shells from the shore to the 

 tops of the mountains f, with the intention undoubtedly of 

 devouring them at leisure. Even the fox, when pressed by 

 hunger, will deign to eat muscles and other bivalves ; and the 

 raccoon, whose fur is esteemed by hatters next in value to that 

 of the beaver, when near the shore lives much on them, more 



* Bingley's Animal Biography. ■ 



t BufFon's Nat. Hist. i. 221. English translation. 



fc 



