stant residence. He is in Judea, Palestine, and Arabia, and consequently must have been familiar to Solomon. David describes him very pertinently, and joins him with other animals perfectly known to all men: 'The hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the saphan,' or ashkoko, Ps. civ. 18. And Solomon says, "There be four things which are little upon earth, but they are exceeding wise. The saphanim are a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in rocks,' Prov. xxx. 24-26. This, Bruce argues, very obviously fixes the ashkoko to be the saphan; for this weakness seems to allude to his feet, and how inadequate these are to dig holes in the rock, where yet, however, he lodges. They are, as already observed, perfectly round, very pulpy or fleshy, liable to be excoriated or hurt, and of a soft fleshy substance. Notwithstanding this, however, they build houses in the very hardest rocks, more inaccessible than those of the rabbit, and in which they abide in greater safety; not by exertion of strength, for they have it not, being truly as Solomon says, a feeble folk, but by their own sagacity and judgment, and are, therefore, justly described as wise. Lastly, what leaves the thing without doubt is, that some of the Arabs, particularly Damir, say, that the saphan has no tail; that it is less than a cat, and lives in houses; that is, not houses with men, as there are few of these in the country where the saphan is; but that he builds houses, or nests of straw, as Solomon has said of him, in contradistinction to the rabbit, and rat, and those other animals that burrow in the ground, who cannot be said to build houses, as is expressly said of the saphan.

THIS animal was declared by the Jewish legislator to be unclean (Lev. xi. 29), which indicates that it was occasionally adopted as an article of food. It was, indeed, one of the abominations charged upon the people in the time of Isaiah, for which they were threatened with signal punishment, Isaiah lxvi. 17.

But the Hebrew acbar, which our version renders mouse, is thought to describe the jerboa, an animal which is classed by the

Arabs under the El Akbar, or largest of the mus montanus. It is found all over Africa, Syria, and other Eastern countries. It is only about five inches long, stands upon its hind legs, and rests itself by sometimes sitting backwards, but seldom supports itself upon all its four legs at once. When it thus stands upright, it has the appearance of a compound animal-a rat with the legs of a bird, in the flying posture. Its fore feet are so extremely short, that they are only used like the ape's and the squirrel's, as hands to convey its food to its mouth, and like the rabbit, to dig a subterraneous habitation; but the hind legs are long, and so very nimble, that it hops like a bird, and with so much activity, that it can scarcely be run down by a greyhound.

The head and mouth of the jerboa resemble those of the hare, but are different from that animal, by having only two incisors. The body is short, and having a tail nearly about the same length, has caused it to receive the appellation of a rat. Its back and sides being of an ashy color, with blueish stripes, may be called a sorrel color. It is eaten in Egypt, and is esteemed very palatable; its skin is used as a common, though a beautiful kind of fur.

The reader is doubtless familiar with the account of the great devastation occasioned in the land of Philistia by this little animal, (1 Sam. vi.), after its inhabitants had taken the ark of the Divine presence, and placed it in the vicinity of the idolatrous symbols of worship. Nor is this the only instance on record in which it has made considerable ravages in that neighborhood,

THIS Curious little quadruped seems formed to live wholly under the earth, as if the supreme Being meant that no place should be left wholly untenanted. Were we, from our own sensations to pronounce upon the life of an animal that was never to appear above ground, but be always condemned to hunt for its prey underdeath, and obliged, whenever it removed from one place to another, to bore its way through a resisting body, we should be apt to assert that such an existence must be the most frightful and solitary in

nature. In the mole, however, though condemned to all these seeming inconveniences, we discover no signs of wretchedness or distress. No quadruped is fatter, none has a more sleek or glossy skin; and, though denied many advantages that most animals enjoy, it is more liberally possessed of others, which they have in a more scanty proportion.

The size of the mole is between that of the rat and the mouse; but it in no way resembles either, being an animal entirely of a singular kind, and perfectly unlike any other quadruped whatever. Its nose is long and pointed, resembling that of a hog, but much longer. Its eyes are so small that it is scarcely possible to discern them; and instead of ears it has only holes in the place. Its neck is so short that the head seems stuck upon the shoulders. The body is thick and round, terminating by a very small short tail, and its legs also are so short, that the animal seems to lie flat on its belly. Thus it appears to us, at first view, as a mass of flesh covered with a fine shining black skin, with a little head, and scarce any eyes, legs, or tail. The ancients and some of the moderns were of opinion, that the mole was utterly blind; but Derham, by the help of a microscope, plainly discovered all parts of the eye that are known in other animals. The smallness of its eyes, which induced the ancients to think it blind, is to the animal a peculiar advantage. A small degree of vision is sufficient for a creature that is destined to live in darkness: a more extensive sight would only have served to show the horrors of its prison, while nature had denied it the means of escape. Had this organ been larger, it would have been perpetually liable to injuries, by the falling of the earth into it; but nature, to prevent that inconvenience, has not only made them very small, but has also covered them with hair. Besides these advantages, anatomists mention another, that contributes to its security; namely, a certain muscle, by which the animal can draw back the eye whenever it is necessary, or in danger. Indeed, the whole figure and formation of the mole is most admirably adapted to its manner of living, and strikingly illustrates the wisdom and skill of the Almighty Creator.

THE BAT.

THIS singular creature, which possesses properties that connect it with both beasts and birds, has been variously placed in systems of natural history. The editor of Calmet, says, it is too much a bird to be properly a beast, and too much a beast to be properly a bird.' Doubts as to its nature, however, no longer exist. The bat is now universally made to take its place among the animal tribes, to which the bringing forth its young alive, its hair, its teeth, as well as the rest of its habitudes and conformation, evidently entitles it. In no particular, scarcely, does it resemble a bird, except in its power of sustaining itself in the air, which circumstance is scarcely enough to balance the weight of those particulars which we have noticed, as placing it among quadrupeds,

The Hebrew name of the bat denotes 'the flier in duskiness,' i. e. the evening. It was similarly named by the Greeks and the Latins. In Deut. xiv. 18, 19, it is well described: Moreover the bat, and every creeping thing that flieth, is unclean to you: they shall not be

eaten.'

The legs of the bat are formed in a very particular manner, and entirely different from any other animal. It creeps with the instruments of its flight. During the entire winter, it conceals itself in its hole, as it does, also, during the day time even in summer, never venturing out, except for an hour or two in the evening, in order to supply itself with food. The usual place in which it takes up its abode is the hollow of a tree, a dark cavern, or the chink of some ruined building, of which it seems particularly fond. This illustrates Isaiah, ii. 20: In that day, a man shall cast his idols of silyer and his idols of gold to the moles and to the bats:' that is, he shall carry his idols into the dark caverns, old ruins, or desolate places, to which he himself shall flee for refuge; and so shall give them up, and relinquish them to the filthy animals that frequent such places, and have taken possession of them as their proper habitation.

THE animal denoted by this appellation in the book of Job, has been variously determined by learned men; some of whom, especially the early Christian writers and the Jewish rabbins, have indulged in sufficiently extravagant notions. To detail these would be useless, and we shall therefore pass them over in silence.

The late editor of Calmet, whose extensive learning and indefatigable industry will always entitle him to respectful attention, notwithstanding his love of fanciful conjecture, has well remarked, that 'the author of the book of Job has evidently taken great pains in delineating highly finished and poetical pictures of two remarkable animals, BEHEMOTH and LEVIATHAN: these he reserves to close his descriptions of animated nature, and with these he terminates the climax of that discourse, which he puts into the mouth of the ALHe even interrupts that discourse, and separates, as it were, by that interruption, these surprising creatures from those which he had described before; and he descants on them in a manner which demonstrates the poetic animation with which he wrote. The leviathan is described at a still greater length than the behe

MIGHTY.