AND LOWER EGYPT. 1 77 



As to your second remark on my assertion, that 

 the jerbos were never more lively and alert than when 

 they were exposed to the full blaze of the sun, a fact 

 which to you appears extremely singular, you must 

 permit me, Sir, to observe in my turn, that my 

 proposition, such as I stated it, did not pretend to 

 describe jerbos in general, nor those which live in 

 perfect liberty, but only certain individuals which 

 1 kept confined in a cage. The expression I made 

 use of rendered it impossible to misunderstand my 

 meaning, for my words precisely are : those which 

 I fed never were more lively and alert, &c. It is 

 not matter of much surprise that animals which, 

 left to themselves, find a habitation, and pass the 

 greatest part of their life in holes dug out of an in- 

 flamed sand, and a burning layer of chalk, should 

 suffer from the privation of heat, on finding them- 

 selves exposed to the impressions of the open air, 

 to the winds, to the coolness of the night season ; 

 and this reason alone would be sufficient to ac- 

 count for the different character of mine, shut up 

 as they were for the most part in the shade, and 

 recovering new life and motion from the genial in- 

 fluence of the rays of the sun. 



I was not ignorant that the gerboise, sent from 

 Tunis to Mr. Klokncr, slept during the whole day, 

 and awoke at the approach of night * ; but what 



* Suppl. to the Hist, of Quadr. by Buffon ; Art. of the add. 

 of profess. Allamande, 



vol. i. N inference 



