INDEX. 365 



Siskin, singing-bird of the sparrow kind. iv. 256. Time of 

 its migration, 257. 



Size of men varies considerably ; the human body often differs 

 from itself; the same person taller when he rises in the 

 morning, than going to bed at night ; sometimes the differ- 

 ence is an inch ; this first perceived in England by a recruit- 

 ing officer ; in what manner ; the cause of it ; men are tall 

 from five feet eight inches to six feet high ; middle size 

 from five feet five to five feet eight, i. 435. Maximin, the 

 emperor, above nine feet in height, 442. Approaching to- 

 wards the north pole, the natives diminish proportionably, 

 growing less and less in higher latitudes, ii. 77- Cause of 

 their difference ; an ox, on the fertile plains of India, grows 

 four times as large as the lesser animal of the same kind in 

 the Alps, 94. Of men in all ages, nearly the same as at 

 present ; many corroborating proofs of this, 115. 



Skate or Ray-fish described, v. 75. 



Skeleton of the bat in some measure resembles that of man, 

 iii. 233. Some lately discovered of enormous size, five or 

 six feet beneath the surface, on the banks of the Ohio, not 

 far from the river Miume, in America, 356. 



Skin, the only part of the body that age does not harden ; 

 whence its wrinkles proceed, ii. 62. Of the black fox most 

 esteemed, a single skin selling for forty or fifty crowns ; 

 the hair is so disposed, that it is impossible to tell which 

 way the grain lies, iii. 54. Most valuable part of the mar- 

 tin's skin ; twelve thousand of these annually imported into 

 England from Hudson's Bay, and thirty thousand from 

 Canada ; most worth when taken in the beginning of win- 

 ter ; of all, that of the sable most coveted, and held in 

 highest esteem ; a single skin four inches broad, is often 

 sold for ten or fifteen pounds ; the fur surpassing all other 

 in having no grain ; whatever way rubbed, is equally smooth 

 and unresisting ; a certain number of these furnished every 

 year by condemned exiles, and Russian soldiers, sent into 

 Siberia to kill the animal, 87. Of the elephant, not cover- 

 ed with hair; that part covering the head resembles the 

 bark of an old tree more than the skin of an animal, 342. 

 Of the rhinoceros, so thick as to turn the edge of a scimi- 

 tar, and resist a musket-ball ; is naked, rough, knotty, and 

 lying upon the body in folds, after a very peculiar manner, 

 358. Of the civet, so strongly scented, a person shut up 

 with one in a close room cannot support the perfume, 105. 



Skink, an animal, called one of the polecats of America; the 

 author thinks it Catesby's Virginia polecat; its description, 

 iii. 94. 



Skull-fish, name of the whale above two years old, v. 39. 



Sleep, with some lower animals, takes up the greatest part of 

 their lives ; man the only creature requiring sleep from 



