282 



LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS. 



above the surface of the water. Its fore feet resemble 

 hands, but they have only three claws or fingers, and are 

 too feeble to be of use in grasping or supporting the 

 weight of the animal ; the hinder feet have only two 

 claws or fingers, and in the larger specimens are found so 

 imperfect as to be almost obliterated. It has small points 

 in the place of eyes, as if to preserve the analogy of 

 nature. It is of a fleshy whiteness and transparency in 

 its natural state, but when exposed to light its skin 

 gradually becomes darker, and at last gains an olive tint. 

 Its nasal organs appear large, and it is abundantly fur- 

 nished with teeth, from which it may be concluded that 

 it is an animal of prey; yet in its confined state it has 

 never been known to eat, and it has been kept alive for 

 many years by occasionally changing the water in which 

 it was placed." 



Specimens which have been kept for some time in 

 England, have been observed to shroud themselves in the 

 darkest part of the vessel in which they were placed, 

 when the covering was taken off in order to inspect them ■ 

 and to betray a sense of uneasiness by their actions when 

 exposed to the light of open clay, creeping round the 

 sides of the vessel, or under the shelter of any sub- 

 stance which threw a partial shadow on the water. 

 Though these animals lived many months, and were 

 healthy and vigorous, they were not supplied with any 

 food, nor is it certainly known on what they subsist, 

 though there is every reason to believe them carnivorous.* 



Confined in a state of nature to the darkness of per- 

 petual midnight in the recesses of its gloomy caverns, the 



* " Pict. Museum of Anim. Nature," ii. 135. 



