Ch. IV. SOUTH AMERICA. 223 



nostrils are also very small ; and the only parts de- 

 stitute of hair, tliese having a glandidous membrane, 

 like the same part in dogs. This creature has two 

 fins, which serve them both for swimming in the 

 water, and for walking on the ground. The tail, 

 which is every where equally cartilaginous, is of a 

 length proportional to the body, but much thicker 

 than those of the generality of fish. They carry it 

 horizontally ; so that by inverting the last vertebrse, 

 where the articulations are more fiexible than in 

 other parts, they form of it a kind of hind feet; 

 and at the same time the fins helping them before, 

 they M^alk without trailing the body along the ground. 

 A remarkable particular in the formation of this am- 

 phibious creature is, that in both the fins and the ex- 

 tremity of the tail there are protuberances resembling 

 fingers, they are small bones or cartilages inclosed 

 within those callous mend)ranes, which cover the fins 

 and tail. These fingers they can expand so as to 

 covei" the whole breadth of the fin; and thus form, 

 as it were, the sole to tread upon. At the end of 

 each is a nail of about two lines in length, and half 

 a line in breadth. 



Amoxg the several articulations in the fins are 

 two very remarkable, one at the junction of the 

 Omoplata, where it forms a kind of shoulder, and 

 the other at the extremity of the fin, where the 

 fingers are connected. The same oeconomy is ob- 

 ser\ed in the tail ; and thus they are adapted to an 

 amphibious life : accordingly, though not vvitha cele- 

 rity equal to that of quadrupeds, they climb up steep 

 rocks of a height one w ould think them impracticable 

 to such creatures, a^j they are absolutely so to men; 

 and come down again with the same ease, notwith- 

 standing their great bulk and fatness, which is such in 

 the larger species, that their diameter at the fins is 

 little short of a yard and a half. 



Their organs of generation are placed at the lower 



extremity 



