THE AMPHIBIOUS KIND. 173 



touched on this subject of Nature's diversity. Naturalists have 

 enumerated, and travellers have observed, an almost endless va- 

 riety of this little bustling class of animals ; and there is scarcely 

 any reason to doubt that the immense woods of the tropical re- 

 gions, contain a number of species which have escaped the eye 

 of every European observer. Although man has for so many ages 

 been occupied in examining the operations of Nature, in the 

 world of matter and of life, a great part of the immense abyss 

 vet remains unexplored ; and perhaps all his genius and industry 

 will never be able to investigate that boundless diversity which 

 the Omnipotent Creator has stamped on his works. If, however, 

 we cannot comprehend the depths of his counsels, nor trace all 

 the varieties of his productions, we can so far penetrate the great 

 design of his plan, as to perceive that our happiness is its object: 

 and explore the wonders of the creation sufficiently to discover 

 that wisdom, power, and goodness, are every where conspicuously 

 displayed. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

 THIS 



" Domesticated otters, too, 

 Employ their skill for man. 



THERE now remains only one more ramification of the quad- 

 ruped race, which we purpose to exhibit to view. This is 

 essentially distinguished from the rest of that class, by the faculty 

 of living equally in the water and on the land, for which reason 

 animals of this kind are usually denominated amphibious, as be- 

 ing inhabitants of two different elements. In these, the attributes 

 of the Deity are not less conspicuously displayed, than in all the 

 other classes of animated nature. 



All quadrupeds of this nature, have this characteristic distinc- 

 tion, that although they are covered with hair, like the generality 

 of their kind, they are furnished with membranes between their 

 toes, which enable them to swim with facility. Some more nearly 

 resemble the constant inhabitants of the deep, by having their 

 hind-feet joined to the body like fins. 



THE OTTER 



May be said to constitute the first step of this gradation, be- 

 tween terrestrial and aquatic animals ; the former of which it re- 

 sembles in exterior appearance and internal conformation, and 



P 2 



