270 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



their reach. Thus the loggerhead turtle roams like a famished 

 tiger through the tropical ocean, and the river-tortoises are the 

 terror of the fishes or even of the water-birds, whom they fre- 

 quently surprise by suddenly darting their long necks at them, 

 when they incautiously fly too near the surface of the treacherous 

 stream. Though deprived of teeth, the turtles and tortoises are 

 able to inflict a, severe bite with their horny jaws, which fit one 

 over the other like a pair of shears, and whose working surface 

 is trenchant in the carnivorous species, but variously sculp- 

 tured and adapted for both cutting and bruising in the vegetable- 

 feeders. 



Like the turtles and tortoises, the lizard tribes are spread far 

 and wide over the sea and the land ; and one genus which, 

 though harmless and inoffensive, bears the formidable name of 

 dragon is furnished with large expansile cutaneous processes, 

 which enable it, like the flying-squirrel, to vault through the air, 

 and spring from branch to branch among the lofty trees in which 

 it resides. In this order also those that frequent the rivers or 

 lagunes, such as the terrible crocodiles or the water-lizards of 

 the Indian Archipelago, are slow and awkward when they creep 

 on land, swift and alert in their own element; but the land- 

 lizards, unlike the tortoises, are almost all distinguished by the 

 swiftness of their motions, so that they can, if pursued, disappear 

 with the rapidity of lightning in the crevice of a rock or a hole 

 in the ground and thus they make up by their agility for the 

 want of a protecting harness. 



The frogs and toads, though naked, and without claws or sharp 

 teeth to offer an active resistance to hostile assault, are still suf- 

 ficiently protected against a number of enemies. 



Thus the strong muscular legs of the edible frog, who loves 

 to warm his green livery on the sunny banks of his pond, 

 render him as good services as he could possibly expect from the 

 best suit of armour. There he will sit motionless for hours toge- 

 ther, enjoying his refreshing air-bath, and imbibing heat and 

 light at every pore ; but as soon as his sharp ear detects the 

 approach of man or beast, one single bound sends him plump 

 into the water, and a few energetic strokes propel him far out 

 of reach. Such is his muscular power that, with one leap, 

 he can jump twenty times his height, or vault over a space 

 fifty times his length. What would have become of him if this 



