INDEX. 279 



middle of winter ; the flesh not fit to be eaten ; the fur has 

 the most beautiful lustre, and preferred to all, except the 

 Siberian fox, or the sable, iii. 106. 



Gnats proceed from a little worm, usually seen at the bottom 

 of standing waters ; curious manner in which the eggs are 

 laid ; in their egg state it resembles a buoy, fixed by an 

 anchor ; different states of the insect ; in its last transfor- 

 mation, divested of a second skin, in the next it resigns its 

 eyes, its antennae, and its tail, and seems to expire ; from 

 the spoils of the amphibious animal appears a little winged 

 insect, whose structure is an object of admiration ; descrip- 

 tion of this insect, and of its trunk, justly deemed one of 

 nature's masterpieces ; implement with which the gnat per- 

 forms its work in summer; places where it spends the 

 winter ; the little brood so numerous, that the water is 

 tinged with the colour of the species ; some gnats oviparous, 

 others viviparous, and come forth in a perfect form ; some 

 are males, and unite with the female, some are females, re- 

 quiring the male, others are of neither sex, and produce 

 young without copulation ; at the sixth generation their 

 propagation stops, the gnat no longer reproduces its like- 

 ness, but requires the male to renew its fecundity ; produc- 

 ed in multitudes beyond expression in America, and found 

 of all sizes, from six inches long, to a minuteness beyond 

 the perception of the common eye ; native Indians, anoint- 

 ed with oil, sleep in cottages covered with thousands of 

 gnats, and have not their slumbers interrupted by these 

 cruel devourers, vi. 164-. 



Goat, its eyes are grey, i. 413. From Europe imported into 

 South America soon degenerates ; as it grows less, it be- 

 comes more prolific ; imported to the African coast, it 

 seems to improve, ii. 171. Goat and sheep propagate to- 

 gether ; and may be considered as of one family ; the buck- 

 goat produces with the ewe an animal in two or three ge- 

 nerations returning to the sheep, and retaining no marks of 

 its ancient progenitor, 252. More fitted for a life of savage 

 liberty than the sheep ; is not easily confined to its flock, 

 but chooses its own pasture, and loves to stray from the 

 rest ; delights in climbing precipices ; is capricious and 

 vagrant ; is not terrified at storms, or incommoded by rain ; 

 immoderate cold affects it, and produces a vertigo, to which 

 this animal is subject ; proof of its being naturally the friend 

 of man, and that it seldom resumes its forest wildness, when 

 once reduced into the state of servitude ; in some places 

 they bear twice a-year ; in warmer climates generally bring 

 forth three, four, and five, at once ; milk of goats medici- 

 nal ; not apt to curdle in the stomach ; flesh of the goat, 

 properly prepared, ranked by some not inferior to venison ; 

 is never so good and so sweet, in our climate, as mutton ; 



