338 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



is provided with nearly fimilar weapons. The hip- 

 popotamus, who Uves in the water, and upon the 

 banks of the Nile» is furniflied with a cloven foot, 

 and, above the paftern, with two fmall horny fub- 

 flances, which bend backward as he walks, fo that 

 he leaves on the fand an impreflfion, which feems 

 to have been made by the preflure of four paws. 

 The defcription of this amphibious animal may be 

 feen toward the end of Dampier^s Voyages, j 



How was it poffible for enlightened men to 

 mifunderftand the ufe of thefe acceffory members, 

 the form of which is imitated by fome of our 

 country clowns, inflilts; which, from this very 

 refemblance, they call hogs-feet, and which they 

 employ in wading through marfhy ground ? Thefe 

 fame clowns have, in like manner, imitated that 

 of the pointed and divergent Ipurs of the goat's- 

 foot, which affift them in fcrambling over the 

 rocks, in their pikes fhod with two iron points, 

 contrived to prevent the backward motion of 

 loaded carriages, on the declivity of mountains. 



Nature, who varies her means with the obflacles 

 to be furmounted, has beftowed the appendix ex- 

 crefcences on the heels of the hog, for the fame 

 reafon that flie has clothed the rhinoceros with a 

 hide rolled up in feveral folds, in the midfl of the 

 torrid Zone. This clumfy animal has' the appear- 

 ance 



