THE CAMELOPARD. S(J9 



seven feet remains, which is high enough to ad- 

 mit a man mounted upon a middle-sized horse. 

 The hinder part, however, is much lower, so that 

 when the animal appears standing, and at rest, it 

 has somewhat the appearance of a dog sitting ; 

 and this formation of its legs gives it an awkward 

 and a laborious motion, which, though swift, must 

 yet be tiresome. For this reason, the camelopard 

 is an animal very rarely found, and only finds re- 

 fuge in the most internal desert regions of Africa. 

 The dimensions of a young one, as they were 

 accurately taken by a person who examined its 

 skin, that was brought from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, were found to be as follow : the length of 

 the head was one foot eight inches ; the height 

 of the fore-leg, from the ground to the top of the 

 shoulder, was ten feet ; from the shoulder to the 

 top of the head was seven ; the height of the 

 hind-leg was eight feet five inches ; and from the 

 top of the shoulder to the insertion of the tail* 

 was just seven feet long. 



No animal, either from its disposition or its 

 formation, seems less fitted for a state of natural 

 hostility : its horns are blunt, and even knobbed 

 at the ends ; its teeth are made entirely for vege- 

 table pasture ; its skin is beautifully speckled with 

 dark spots, upon a whitish ground. It is timorous 

 and harmless, and notwithstanding its great size, 

 rather flies from than resists the slightest enemy : 

 it partakes very much of the nature of the ca- 

 mel, which it so nearly resembles ; it lives entire- 

 ly upon vegetables, and when grazing is obliged 

 to spread its fore-legs very wide, in order to 



VOL. in. A a 



