NORTH AMERICA, 
•efemblance to the nails of the human fingers, five 
on the fore feet ; the hind legs or feet appear as if 
truncated, or as flumps of feet, armed all round 
with {harp, flattifli ftrong nails, the number unde- 
termined or irregular ; the head is of a moderate 
fize ; the upper mandible a little hooked, the edges 
hard and fharp ; the eyes are large ; the nofe pick- 
ed ; the noflrils near together and very minute ; 
the general colour of the animal is a light afh or 
clay, and at a diftance, unlefs it is in motion, 
any one would difregard or overlook it as a flone 
or an old flump. It is aflonifhing what a weight 
one of thefe creatures will bear ; it will eafily carry 
any man {landing on its back, on level ground. 
They form great and deep dens in the fand hills, 
rafting out incredible quantities of earth. They are 
efteemed excellent food. The eggs are larger than 
a mufket ball, perfectly round, and the fhell hard. 
After crofling over this point or branch of the 
marfhes, we entered a noble foreft, the land level, 
and the foil fertile, being a loofe, dark brown, coarfe 
fandy loam, on a clay or marley foundation : the 
foreft confifted of orange groves,, overtopped by grand 
magnolias, palms, live oaks, juglans cinerea, mo- 
rus rubra, fagus fylvatica, tiliaf, and liquidambar ; 
with various kinds of fh-rubs and herbaceous plants, 
particularly caliicarpa, halefia., fambucus, zanthoxy^ 
ion, ptelea, rhamnus frangula, rudbeckia, filphium, 
polymnia, indigo fera, fophora, falvia graveolens, 
&c. We were cheerfully received in this hos- 
pitable {hade, by various tribes of birds ; their 
fprightly fongs feemed a prelude to the vicinity of 
human habitations. This magnificent grove was a 
wing of the vaft forefts lying upon the coaft of the 
great and beautiful lake of .Cufcowilla, at no great 
cliftarics 
