AND LOWER EGYPT. I47 



it is we find the giraffe or cameleopard, remarkable 

 for the disproportionate height of his fore-legs *. 

 We likewise find an extreme disproportion between 

 the legs of the jerbo ; but the hinder legs are, in 

 this animal, excessively long, whereas the fore 

 scarcely appear. These long limbs, or, to express 

 myself with greater precision, these long feet, for it 

 is the tarsus which is so immoderately lengthened, 

 are of use to the jerbo only in his progressive move- 

 ment : those before, which may be considered as 

 little hands, are useless to him in removing from 

 place to place. He hops after the manner of birds; 

 and this kind of motion, which would be very con- 

 straining to every other quadruped, is so much 

 adapted to him, that his running, or rather his leap- 

 ing, is very nimble and very speedy. He then is 

 an animal which, with four feet, seems to be with- 

 drawing from the class of quadrupeds, to assume 

 somewhat of the impress of that of birds. Placed 

 on the first step of the passage from the one to the 

 other, he constitutes the first degradation of qua- 

 drupeds, and commences the progression from these 

 to birds. The celebrated man who has carried the 

 torch of philosophy into the sanctuary of nature, 

 was the first to establish this sublime and important 

 truth : that the workmanship of Nature had not 

 been intersected by wide intervals, nor by sudden 



* Giraffe. Buffon, Nat. Hist. Quadrupeds. — Camcleopardalit 

 giraffa, Lin, 



l 2 breaks; 



