AMPHIBIOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



and nose are broad and flat ; the mouth bears 

 some similitude to that of a fish ; the neck is 

 short, and equal in thickness to the head ; the 

 body long; the tail broad at the insertion, but 

 tapering off to a point at the end ; the eyes are 

 very small, and placed nearer the nose than usual 

 in quadrupeds. The legs are very short, but 

 remarkably strong, broad, and muscular ". The 

 joints are articulated so loosely, that the animal 

 is capable of turning them quite back, and bring- 

 ing them on a line with the body, so as to per- 

 form the office of fins. Each foot is furnished 

 with five toes, connected by strong broad webs 

 like those of water-fowl. Thus nature, in every 

 part, has had attention to the life of an animal 

 whose food is fish, and whose haunts must neces- 

 sarily be about water. 



This voracious animal is never found but at the 

 sides of lakes and rivers, but particularly the for- 

 mer, as it is seldom fond of fishing in a running 

 stream ; for the current of the water having more 

 power upon it than the fishes it pursues, if it hunts 

 against the stream it swims too slow, and if with 

 the stream it overshoots its prey. However, 

 when in rivers, it is always observed to swim 

 against the stream, and to meet the fishes it preys 

 upon, rather than to pursue them. In lakes it 

 destroys much more than it devours, and is often 

 seen to spoil a pond in the space of a few nights. 

 But the damage they do by destroying fish is not 

 so great as their tearing in pieces the nets of the 

 fishers, which they infallibly do whenever they 

 happen to be entangled. The instant they find 



