A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature, Volume 3

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W. C. Wright, 1824
 

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Page 64 - ... ocean. It is divided into distinct columns of five or six miles in length and three or four in breadth, and they drive the water before them with a kind of rippling...
Page 144 - ... of a lap-dog. The crocodile has a much wider swallow, and is of an ash colour; the alligator is black, varied with white, and is thought not to be so mischievous. All these distinctions, however are very slight and can be reckoned little more than minute variations. This animal grows to a great length, being sometimes found thirty feet long from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail; its most usual length, however, is eighteen. One which was dissected by the Jesuits at Siam was of the...
Page 85 - ... keeps its hold, until it has taken out the piece. Though peaceable in itself, it is formed for war in another respect, for it seems almost endued with immortality. Nothing can kill it ; the depriving it of one of its members is but a slight injury ; it will live though deprived of the brain, it will live though deprived of its head.
Page 80 - For this purpose, the crab has no sooner reached the shore, than it eagerly goes to the edge of the water, and lets the waves wash over its body two or three times.
Page 96 - When the turtle has done laying, she returns to the sea, and leaves her eggs to be hatched by the heat of the sun. At the end of fifteen days she lays about the same number of eggs again ; and at the end of another fifteen days she repeats the samo ; three times in all, using the same precautions every time for their safety.
Page 356 - In order to extirpate these pernicious birds, there is a law in the Orkney Islands, which entitles any person that kills an Eagle to a hen out of every house in the parish in which the plunderer is killed.
Page 169 - In this creature there were six eggs, each of the size of a.gooseegg, but longer, more pointed, and covered with a membranous skin, by which also they were united to each other. Each of these eggs contained from thirteen to fifteen young ones, about six inches long, and as thick as a goose-quill.
Page 181 - ... the limb swells, the venom reaches the head, which is soon of a monstrous size ; the eyes are red and fiery ; the heart beats quick, with frequent interruptions ; the pain becomes insupportable, and some expire under it in five or six hours ; but others, who are of stronger constitutions, survive the agony for a few hours longer, only to sink under a general mortification which ensues, and corrupts the whole body.
Page 274 - ... and thus a single floating bee-house yields the proprietor a considerable income. Why a method similar to this has never been adopted in England, where we have more gentle rivers and more flowery banks than in any other part of the world, I know not ; certainly, it might be turned to advantage, and yield the possessor a secure, though, perhaps, a moderate income.
Page 187 - Notwithstanding the smaUness of ants, nothing hinders our preferring them to the largest animals ; if we consider either their unwearied diligence, their wonderful strength, or their inimitable propensity to labour. Their amazing love to their young is still more unparalleled among the larger classes. They not only daily carry them to such places as may afford them food ; but if, by accident, they are killed, and even cut into pieces, they, with the utmost tenderness, will carry them away, piecemeal,...

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