6ô STUDIES IN NATURE. 



Ifland of MifcoLi, difappeared in 1669, becaufe in 

 the year preceding, the forefts had been devoured 

 by a conflagration. He remarks, that the fame 

 caufe had produced the fame effect in different 

 places. Though he afcribes the difappearancc of 

 thefe fiflies to the particular effeds of fire, and is, 

 in other refpeds, a very intelligent Writer, we 

 fhall demonftrate, by other curious obfervations, 

 that it mufl have been occafioned by the deftriic- 

 tion of the vegetables which ufed to attrad them 

 to the fhore. Thus, every thing in Nature is in 

 ftrid alliance. The Fauns, the Dryads, and the 

 Nereids, walk, every where hand in hand. 



What a charming fpedacle would a botanical 

 Zoology prefent ? What unknown harmonies would 

 be refleded from a plant to an animal, and from 

 an animal to a plant ! What pidurefque beauties 

 would appear 1 What relations of utility, of every 

 fpecies, contributing either to pleafure or to profit, 

 would refult from it ! The introdudion of a new 

 plant into our fields, would be fufïicient to allure 

 a new fct of fongfters to our groves, and flioals of 

 unknown fiQies to the mouths of our rivers. Might 

 it not be pofTible to increafe even the family of 

 our domeflic animals, by peopling the glaciers of 

 the lofty mountains of Dauphiné, and of Au^ 

 vergne, with herds of rein-deer, an animal (o va- 

 luable in tlie northern parts of Europe j or with 



the 



