BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 135 



could send them by a shorter course. They never 

 turn aside to the right or to the left, if they can pos- 

 sibly avoid it, whatever obstacles intervene. If they 

 meet with a house, they will attempt to scale the 

 walls, in order to keep their ranks ; and if the coun- 

 try be intersected by rivers, they wind along the 

 course of the stream. They arc commonly divided 

 into three battalions, of which the first consists of 

 the strongest and boldest males, that, like pioneers, 

 march forward to clear the route, and face the great- 

 est dangers. They are often obliged to halt for want 

 of rain. The main body is composed of females, 

 which never leave the mountains till the rain is set 

 in, and then descend in regular order, in columns of 

 fifty paces broad, and three miles deep ; and so close 

 that they almost cover the ground. Three or four 

 days after this, the rear guard follows, a straggling 

 and undisciplined tribe, consisting of males and fe- 

 males ; but neither so robust nor so numerous as the 

 former. The night is their chief time of proceeding; 

 but if it rains by day, they do not fail to profit by 

 the occasion When they are terrified, they march 

 back in a disorderly manner, holding up their nip- 

 pers, with which they sometimes tear off a piece of 

 the flesh of an assailant, and leave the weapon where 

 they inflicted the wound. They even try to intimi- 

 date their enemies, by clattering their nippers toge- 

 ther, which, considering their number, must have 

 a powerful effect. When they have arrived at the 

 shore, which sometimes takes three months, they 

 prepare to cast their spawn, by eagerly going to the 



