98 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN, 



pose. This, then, may be one reason, and a very 

 sufficient one too, for the formation of Serpents, that 

 besides helping to rid the earth of a vast number of 

 the smaller obnoxious vermin, they find their way 

 with the greatest ease into the most secret recesses 

 of putrefaction, and destroy those noisome carcases 

 in a short period, to which the other large animals 

 of similar tastes could not, by the peculiar structure 

 of their bodies, have had access. The use of the 

 Leech is also too well known to need description. 



CHAP. X. 



THE OCEAN. 



... .. ... And thou, majestic main ! 



A secret world of wonders in thyself ! 



Sound His stupendous praise, whose greater voice 



Or bids you roar, or bids your roaring fall." 



WHAT a grand and magnificent spectacle does the 

 Ocean present ! Whether we view it when wrought 

 up by fearful agkation into all the horrors of the tem- 

 pest, when the blackness of darkness rides trium- 

 phant on the storm, and its foaming billows mix with 

 the clouds, or gaze upon it, with a calm delight, as it 

 gently advances or recedes in soft and hollow' mur- 

 murs upon the sandy beach, when not a breeze is 

 observed to breathe on its undulating bosom, and 

 every wind is hushed, it is impossible to conceive 



