140 SALMONIA. [FIFTH DAY. 



instincts to be good for food; and when they are 

 hatched in the May-fly season, they pursue these 

 large ephemerae with the greatest avidity, and make 

 them their favourite food. It is impossible, I think, 

 to explain these facts, except by supposing, that they 

 depend upon feelings or desires in the animals 

 developed with their organs, which are not acquired, 

 and which are absolutely instinctive. I will mention 

 another instance. A friend of mine was travelling in 

 the interior of Ceylon ; on the shore of a lake he saw 

 some fragments of shells of the eggs of the alligator, 

 and heard a subterraneous sound : his curiosity was 

 excited, and he was induced to search beneath the 

 surface of the sand: besides two or three young 

 animals lately come from the shell, he found several 

 eggs which were still entire : he broke the shell of one 

 of them, when a young alligator came forth, apparently 

 perfect in all its functions and motions ; and when my 

 friend touched it with a stick, it assumed a threatening 

 aspect, and bit the stick with violence; and it 

 made towards the water, which, though born by the 

 influence of the sunbeams on the burning sand, 

 it seemed to know was its natural and hereditary 

 domain. Here is an animal which, deserted by its 

 parents, and entirely submitted to the mercy of nature 

 and the elements, must die if it had to acquire its 

 knowledge ; but all its powers are given, all its wants 



