2.6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



ger, but he fwallows, without diftindion, every 

 thing that drops from a fhip into the fea, cordage, 

 cloth, pitch, wood, iron, nay, even knives. Ne- 

 verthelefs, I have been a frequent witnefs of his 

 abftinence, in two remarkable circumftances ; the 

 one is, however urged by famine, he never touches 

 a kind of fmall fi(b, fpeckled with yellow and 

 black, called the pilot fifli, who fwim juft before 

 his fnout, to guide him to his prey, which he can- 

 not fee till he is clofe to it ; for Nature, as a coun- 

 terbalance to the ferocity of this fifli, has rendered 

 him almofl blind. The other cafe is this, v/hen 

 you throw into the fea a dead fowl, the noife brings 

 him to the fpot, but on difcovering it to be a fowl, 

 he immediately retires, without devouring it ; this 

 has furnilhed failors with a proverb : The Jhark fees 

 from the feather. It is impofiible, in the firft cafe, 

 not to afcribe to him fome portion of underftand- 

 ing, which repreffes his voracity, in favour of his 

 guides ; and not to attribute, in the fécond, his 

 averfvon to feathered fleQi, to that univerfalreafon, 

 which, deftining him to live along the fliallows, 

 where cadaverous fubftances, of creatures perifhing 

 in the fea, fall and are depofited, infpires him with 

 an averfion for feathered animals, that he may not 

 deftroy the fea-fowls, which refort thither in great 

 numbers, employed, like himfelf, in looking out 

 for a livelihood, and in cleanfmg the fliores from 

 impurities. 



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