GROWTH AND FOOD OF ANIMALS. 143 



kind. With these, while fresh, *hey not only supply their 

 present wants, but dry and preserve them through the winter. 

 They likewise kill hares, and other animals, which abound in 

 the woods and mountains ; but the flesh of the bear is their 

 greatest delicacy. In their lakes and rivers they have inex- 

 haustible stores of fish, which, in summer and autumn, they 

 dry in the sun, or in stoves, and in winter preserve by the 

 frost. The Laplanders drink water, or animal oils ; but never 

 taste bread or salt. They live in a pure air, and have suffi- 

 cient exercise. Their constitutions are attempered to the 

 coldness of the climate ; and they are remarkable for vigor 

 and longevity. The gout, the stone, the rheumatism, and many 

 other diseases which torture the luxurious in milder climes, 

 are totally unknown to them. With the few gifts which Na- 

 ture has bestowed upon them, they remain satisfied, and live 

 happily among their mountains and their storms. If southern 

 nations afford examples of people who feed nearly on vegeta- 

 bles alone, the Laplanders furnish one of the opposite extreme ; 

 for they are almost entirely carnivorous. 



To Norway, Sweden, Germany, Britain, and the United 

 States, the same observation is applicable. In these coun- 

 tries animal food is much more used than in France, Spain, 

 Italy, Barbary, and the other southern regions of the globe. 

 Many reasons may be assigned for these differences in the 

 food of nations. The natural productions of the earth depend 

 entirely on the climate. In warm climates, the vegetables, 

 which grow spontaneously, are both more luxuriant and more 

 various. Their fruits, in number and richness, far exceed 

 those of colder regions. From this circumstance, the natives 

 must be stimulated to use a proportionally greater quantity 

 of vegetable food ; and we learn from history, and from trav- 

 ellers, that this is actually the case. In cold countries, on 

 the contrary, vegetables are not only fewer, but more rigid, 

 and contain less nourishment. The inhabitants, accordingly, 

 are obliged to live principally on animal substances. If we 

 examine the mode of feeding in different nations, it will be 

 found ; that in proportion as men approach or recede from the 

 poles, a greater or less quantity of animal and vegetable sub- 

 stances are used in their diet. Custom, laws, and religious 

 rites, it must be allowed, produce considerable differences in 

 the articles of food, among particular nations, which have no 

 dependence on climate, or the natural productions of the 

 "earth. But when men are not fettered or prejudiced by ex- 

 traneous circumstances, or political institutions, the nature of 



