1/8 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



inference can be deduced from the habits of a little 

 isolated and very delicate animal, when, forced 

 away from the heat of its natal soil, it finds itself 

 transported into a climate cold and humid, like 

 that of Holland ? This reflection applies with equal 

 force to those which M. Doyat preserved alive at 

 Lausanne. I have likewise, in favour of my opi- 

 nion, testimony not liable to suspicion ; in the 

 first place, that of my own eyes, which are suffi- 

 ciently good to merit some confidence ; next, that 

 of many Europeans who saw my jerbos at Alex- 

 andria ; and, finally, that of the crew of the po- 

 lacre, the Fortune, on board of which those jerbos 

 were for a whole month. 



But I have extended my proposition, I acknow- 

 ledge, and have advanced that jerbos were to be 

 met with in the daytime in the vicinity of their 

 subterraneoushabitations; which supposesthat they 

 are not continually lulled to sleep. Could the 

 Arabs interpose between you and me, they would 

 assure you, Sir, that they shoot the jerbos with their 

 fowling-pieces the moment they issue from their 

 holes. But an undeniable testimony, because it 

 proceeds from a good zoologist and an illustrious 

 traveller, is that of Mr. Bruce. He relates that, in 

 an unfortunate journey through the part of Africa 

 formerly known by the name of Cyrena'is or Pen- 

 tapolis, and where the jerbo is more common than 

 elsewhere, he employed his attendants, and the 



Arabs 



