340 MEMOIRS OF 



leaft fifteen miles. The feldomnefs with 

 which that happens, and the frequency 

 of the attempt, ftrew the circumjacent 

 plains with the dead. Faith in this won- 

 derful tale has melted away in fubfequent 

 inquiry. Many have faid that Dr. Darwin 

 certainly believed the > account. He cer- 

 tainly writes as if he believed it ; yet that 

 was but to ferve a poetic purpofe; credulity 

 was not one of his propenfities. 



The Orchis Morio, the parent root of 

 which fhrivels' up and dies as the young 

 one increafes, is transformed into a fond 

 mother, nurfing her infant at the expence 

 of her own health and life. This ani- 

 mation is fliort, and, compared to many of 

 the others, has little intereft ; but it's two 

 illuftrations have every intereft, and the 

 fecond forms a very fweet and mournful 

 epifode. The firft is a lovely picSure of a 

 wounded deer, efcaping from her ambufhcd 

 archer, and flying, with her fawn, to the 



w r oodlands, 



