Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (Volume 5); In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1790. Excerpt: ... his fide towards the perfon, and his head averted, till judging his diltancc, he turns round, fprings upon him, and fallens upon the part next to him; for it is not true what is faid, that the Ccraftcs does not leap or fpring. I faw one of them at Cairo, in the houfe of Julian and Rofa, crawl up the fide of a box, in which there were many, and there lye ftill as if hiding himfelf, till one of the people who brought them to us came near him, and though in a very difadvantagebus pofture, flicking as it were perpendicular to the fide of the box, he leaped near the diftance of three feet, and fattened between the man's forefinger and thumb, fo as to bring the blood. The fellow fhewed no {igns of either pain or fear, and we kept him with us full four hours, without his applying any fort of remedy, or his feeming inclined to do fo. To make myfelf allured that the animal was in its perfecft Hate, I made the man hold him by the neck fo as to force him to open his mouth, and lacerate the thigh of a pelican, a bird I had tamed, as big as a fwan. The bird died in about 13 minutes, though it was apparently affecfted in 50 feconds; and we cannot think this was a fair trial, becaufe a very few minutes before, it had bit the man, and fo difcharged part of its virus, and it was made to fcratch the pelican by force, without any irritation or a tion of its own. The Ceraftes inhabits the greateft part of the eaftern continent, efpecially the defert fandy parts of it. It abounds in Syria, in the three Arabias, and in Africa. I never faw fo many of them as in the Cyrenaicum, where the Jerboa is frequent in proportion. He is a great lover of heat; for tho* Vol. V. Ii e the the fun was burning hot all day, when we made a fire at night, by digging a hole, and burning wood to charcoal m it, for dreili...