C A T. 
tremendous, being enflamed by the influence of a- 
burning fun, on a moft arid foil. In the interior 
parts of Africa* , amidft the fcorched and defolate 
deferts of Zaara , or Biledulgerid , they reign foie 
maders; they lord it over every bead, and their 
courage never meets with a check, where the cli¬ 
mate keeps mankind at a diflance : the nearer they 
approach the habitations of the human race, the 
lefs their rage, or rather the greater is their timi¬ 
dity***, they have often experienced the unequal 
combat, and finding that there exids a being fupe- 
rior to them, commit their ravages with more cau¬ 
tion : a cooler climate again has the fame effed • for 
in the burning deferts, where rivers and fountains 
are denied, they live in a perpetual fever, a fort of 
madnefs fatal to every animal they meet with: the 
author of the oeconomy of nature gives a wonder- 
full proof of the indind of thefe animals in thofe 
unwatered trads. There the Pelican makes her 
ned ^ and in order to cool her young ones, and ac- 
cuftom them to an element they mud afterwards be 
converfant in, brings from afar, in their great gular 
pouch, diffident water to fill the ned *, the lion, 
and other wild beads, approach and quench their 
third, yet never injure the unfledged f birds, as if 
confcious that their dedrudion would immediately 
put a dop to thofe gratefull fupplies. 
The courage of the lion is tempered with mercy J, 
* Leo Afr. 342. 
** Purdah Pilg. II. 809. 
f Amaen. Acad. ll. 37. _ > t ,. 
f Leoni tantum feris dementia in Jupplices: profiratis parcit: et ubif&vit , 
in <viros prius, quam in faeminus fremit, in infantes non niji magna fame . 
Jflinii, lib. viii. c. 16. Miffon, vol. III. 292. confirms ihe lafi. 
M 3 and 
