STUDY X. S$ 



gge, as they tell us, from a failure of radical moif- 

 ture ; for nothing can be of a clofer contexture than 

 moft of thofe furs, nor any thing more vigorous 

 than the animals which are arrayed in them. The 

 white-bear is one of the ftrongeft and moft formi- 

 dable of animals in the world ; it frequently re» 

 quires feveral mufket-fliot to bring him down. 



Nature, on the contrary, has tinged with red, 

 with blue, with dufky, and black tints, the foil, 

 the vegetables, the animals, nay, even the men, 

 who inhabit the Torrid Zone, for the purpofe of 

 there abforbing the fires of the burning Atmo- 

 fphere with which they ate furrounded. The 

 lands, and the fands of the greateft part of Africa, 

 lituated between the Tropics, are of a reddidi 

 brown, and the rocks are of a black hue. The 

 îflands of France and of Bourbon, which are on 

 the border of that Zone, are, in general, of the 

 fame dark complexion. I have feen there chickens 

 and perroquets, not only whofe plumage, but the 

 fkin itfelf, was dyed black. I have likewife feen, 

 in thofe iflands, fifties entirely black, and efpeGJally 

 among the fpecies which live near the furface of 

 the water, over the (hallows, fuch as the old-wo- 

 man and the thornback. 



As animals whiten, in Winter, toward the 

 North, in proportion as the Sun withdraws from 



g 2 them^ 



