PROPERTIES OF THE REIN-DEER. 123 



hasten towards the spring, long before their riders per- 

 ceive that any is at hand. 



We have already seen that the goat is famished 

 with a hollow foot, to prevent it from slipping off the 

 precipices : the broad foot of the camel is equally well 

 adapted for treading on a sandy level ; nor can it 

 make a firm step on moist or slippery gi-ound, or climb 

 with safety a steep ascent or a shelving declivity. 

 Had the camel and the goat, (the one an inhabitant of 

 the plain, the other of the mountains,) each remaining 

 in other respects the same, exchanged feet, neither 

 could have subsisted in their native climes. The pro- 

 perties of the rein-deer are as opposite to those of the 

 camel, as the frozen regions he inhabits are to the 

 scorching deserts of Arabia. He can endure the ut- 

 most extreme of cold, and his hunger is satisfied with 

 a little moss, that his instincts teach him to seek with 

 his hoofs under the snow. 



Can any one observe this harmony of nature, and 

 not acknowledge the Divine Hand that has so nicely 

 adapted the creature and its natural situation to each 

 other ? The whole earth teems wdth such correspon- 

 dencies, had I but knowledge and leisure to display 

 them. The rational mind cannot doubt that the in- 

 numerable worlds that are dispersed in infinite space 

 abound likewise in monuments of the same wisdom 

 and goodness. 



