OF NATURAL HISTORY. 221 



trees, and are, therefore, furnlfhed with feet which enable them to 

 climb. Water- fowls live upon fifhes, infedls, and the eggs of fillies. 

 Their bill, neck, wings, legs, and whole ftrudture, are nicely fitted 

 for enabling them to catch the food adapted to their natures. Their 

 feeding upon the eggs of filhes accounts for that variety of filhes 

 ■which are often found in lakes and pools on the tops of hills, 

 and on high grounds remote from the fea and from rivers. The 

 bat and the goat-fucker fly about during the night, when the whole 

 air is filled with moths, and other no£turnal infedls. The bear, who 

 acquires a prodigious quantity of fat during the fummer, retires to 

 his den, when provifions fail him, in winter. For fome months, 

 he receives his fole nourifliment from the abforption of the fat 

 which had been previoufly accumulated in the cellular membrane. 



A glutton, brought from Siberia to Drefden, eat every day, fays 

 M. Klein, thirty pounds of flefli without being fatisfied. This fadl 

 indicates an amazing digeftive power in fo fmall a quadruped ; for 

 the ftory of his fqueezing his fides between two trees, in order to 

 make him difgorge, is a mere fable *. 



Siberia, Kamtfchatka, and the polar regions, are fuppofed to be 

 the abodes of mifery and defolation. They are, it muft be allowed, 

 infefted with numerous tribes of bears, foxes, gluttons, and other ra- 

 pacious animals. But it fhould be confidered, that thefe voracious 

 animals fupply the natives with both food and clothing. To elude 

 the attacks of ferocity, and to acquire polTeflion of the fkins and 

 carcafles of fuch creatures, the induftry and dexterity of favage na- 

 tions are excited. The furs are demanded by foreigners. The inha- 

 bitants by this means learn commerce and the arts of life ; and, in the 

 progrefs of time, bears and wild beafts become the inftruments of 



polilTiing 



* Gaz. Litteralre, vol. i. p. 481. 



