ANIMALS J63 



aluove, while inundations cover all below, the insects, reptiles, ao^ 

 other animals, grow to a prodigious size : the earth-worm of America 

 is often a yard in length, and as thick as a walking cane ; the boiguacu, 

 which is the largest of the serpent kind, is sometimes forty feet in 

 length ; the bats, in those countries, are as big as a rabbit ; the toads 

 are bigger than a duck ; and their spiders are as large as a sparrow. 

 On the contrary, in the cold frozen regions of the north, where vege- 

 table nature is stinted of its growth, the few animals in those climates 

 partake of the diminution ; all the wild animals, except the bear, are 

 much smaller than in milder countries ; and such of the domestic 

 kinds as are carried thither, quickly degenerate, and grow less. Their 

 very insects are of the minute kinds, their bees and spiders being not 

 half so large as those in the temperate zone. 



The similitude between vegetables and animals is no where more 

 obvious than in those that belong to the ocean, where the nature of 

 one is admirably adapted to the necessities of the other. This ele- 

 ment, it is well known, has its vegetables, and its .insects that feed 

 upon them, in great abundance. Over many tracts of the sea, a weed 

 is seen floating, which covers the surface, and gives the resemblance 

 of a green and extensive meadow. On the under side of these un- 

 stable plants, millions of little animals are found, adapted to their 

 situation. For as their ground, if I may so express it, lies over their 

 heads, their feet are placed upon their backs ; and as land animals 

 have their legs below their bodies, these have them above. At 

 land also, most animals are furnished with eyes to see their food ; 

 but at sea, almost all the reptile kinds are without eyes, which might 

 only give them prospects of danger at a time when unprovided with 

 the means of escaping it.* 



Thus, in all places, we perceive an obvious similitude between the 

 animals and the vegetables of every region. In general, however, 

 (he most perfect races have the least similitude to the vegetable pro- 

 ductions on which they are ultimately fed ; while, on the contrary, 

 the meaner the animal, the more local it is found to be, and the more 

 it is influenced by the varieties of the soil where it resides. Many of 

 the more humble reptile kinds are not only confined to one country, 

 but also to a plant ; nay, even to a leaf. Upon that they subsist ; in- 

 crease with its vegetation, and seem to decay as it declines. They 

 are merely the circumscribed inhabitants of a single vegetable ; take 

 them from that, and they instantly die ; being entirely assimilated to 

 the plant they feed on, assuming its colour, and even its medicinal 

 properties. For this reason there are infinite numbers of the meaner 

 animals that we have never an opportunity of seeing in this part of 

 the world ; they are incapable of living separate from their kindred 

 vegetables, which grow only in a certain climate. 



Such animals as are formed more perfect, lead a life of less depen* 

 donee ; and some kinds are found to subsist in many parts of the 

 world at the same time. But of all the races of animated nature, man 

 .s the least affected by the soil where he resides, and least influenced 

 by the variations of vegetable sustenance : equally unaffected by the 



Linnsei Ameniiatcs, vol. v. p. 68. 



