be irresistible if not counteracted by some peculiar instinct. With respect to the risk incurred by men, while he confesses that two of these birds would be dangerous enemies for a single man to encounter, he states that he has frequently approached them within ten or twelve feet, as they sat three or four together perched upon the rocks, and that they showed no disposition to attack him. The Indians of Quito, moreover, unanimously assured him that men have nothing to apprehend from the condors. The eagle, however, has been known to attack and carry off children.

Bishop Heber, in his travels in India, passed through a mountainous district, where sad complains were made of their carrying off infant children; and we remember some years ago, in the Alps, that on a high-pointed pinnacle of inaccessible rock, jutting out from a peak of snow, near the summit of the Jung Frau, one of the highest of the Alpine range of mountain, there might be seen the tattered remains of the clothing of a poor child, who had been carried up by a lämmergeyer, or bearded vulture, from a valley below, in spite of the shouts of some peasants whe saw the bird pounce upon its prize.

A more fortunate fate awaited a child in the isle of Skye in Scotland, where a woman having left it

in the field for a short time, an eagle carried it off in its talons across a lake, and there deposited its burden; some people herding sheep perceived it, and hearing the infant cry, hurried to the spot, and found it uninjured. The name of the child was Niel, but he was afterward distinguished and called by a Gaelick word, signifying eagle. In Sweden, a deplorable circumstance occurred to the mother of a child; she was working in the fields, and had laid her infant on the ground, at a little distance; soon after an eagle darted down and carried it off. For a considerable time the wretched woman heard the poor child screaming in the air; but there was no help. She saw it no more; in a little time she lost her reason, and is, we believe, still living, confined in the lunatick asylum of the town near which it happened.

On Tirst Holm, one of the Ferrce islands, situated between the north of Scotland and Iceland, a similar fact occurred; an eagle caught up an infant lying at a little distance from its mother, and carried it to its nest, situated on a point of a high rock, so steep, that the boldest bird-catchers had never ventured to attempt to climb it; the mother, however, ascended, and reached the nest, but, alas! too late : the child was dead, and its eyes torn out.

But the most striking story we have met with, is the brave behaviour of a little boy in the state of New York. Two boys, the one seven, and the other five years old, were amusing themselves by trying to reap, while their parents were at dinner. A large eagle soon came sailing over them, and with a sudden sweep attempted to seize the eldest, but luckily missed him. The bird, not at all dismayed, alighted at a short distance, and in a few moments repeated his attempt. The bold little fellow, however, gallantly defended himself with the sickle, which he fortunately held in his hand, and when the bird rushed upon him, resolutely struck at it. The sickle entered under the left wing, and the blow having been given strongly, went through the ribs, and piercing the liver, proved fatal. On opening the

bird's stomach, it was found entirely empty, which may explain in some degree the cause of so unusual an attack. The brave little boy did not receive a scratch, though there can be little doubt, that had the bird not been weakened by hunger, a blow or two from its sharp strong beak would have penetrated through the scull into the brain, and caused instant death.

Eagles of this particular sort are very common in that part of the country, and are often known to carry off a turkey, or even a goose, but this was the first instance of their attacking children, though in New South Wales, a celebrated navigator, Captain Flinders, met with something of the same sort. He was walking with some of his officers, when a large eagle, with a fierce aspect, and outspread wing, was

per jaw, and eight in the under, the intermediate ones in the upper jaw being longer than the rest; the three front grinders compressed, and the last four tuberculated; those above triangular, but the under ones oblong, and two canines in each jaw, making in all fifty teeth, which is a greater number than is possessed by quadrupeds of any other genus. Their gape is wide, and the appearance of the mouth ragged; but their bite is feeble, compared with the size of their biting apparatus. Their tongues are beset with horny tubercles, like those on the tongue of a cat; and their tail is in part naked on the under side, and prehensile. Their ears are very large and naked, and their aspect is altogether very peculiar. Their hind feet have the thumb or fifth toe long, and capable of acting in opposition to the other four, so as to lay hold like a hand. The four toes which act together on the hind feet are furnished with nails; and when not used in grasping, the nailless one is turned to the rear, like the hind toe of a bird. Their legs are short in proportion to the size of their bodies; they plant their feet upon the round pad of the sole when they walk, and their rate of motion on the ground is but slow. In trees, however, which the greater number of them chiefly inhabit, they have much power of themselves, and climb and hold on with much address. Their eyes have the irides yellow, and the pupils are vertical, like those of the fox. It has been said of them that they have a gape like a pike, the ears of a bat, the feet of an ape, and the tail of a serpent; and, certainly, taking their char-acters all in all, they differ very much from the pla

cental mammalia. The difference extends not only to the form of the body, and the structure of those parts upon which the classification is founded, but it extends to the very covering, the hair of the opossum being unlike that of most other animals. It is neither sleek nor frizzled; and it has more resemblance to whalebone than to common hair, and on the naked parts there are sometimes scales. This uncouth sort of covering the semi-transparent ears, which appear reddish when seen against the light, the yellow sinister eyes, the short legs, and the singularly-formed feet, give these animals a repulsive appearance, which is in nowise diminished by the very fetid and offensive odour which they give out. The different species vary considerably in their habits; but they may be generally described as nocturnal animals, the principal part of which inhabit trees, in the holes of which they lodge; and they prey upon birds, lizards, and other small animals. Some of them also haunt the waters and feed upon shelled mollusca and crustacea.

All the species have the general characters of marsupial animals, the most remarkable of which in the skeleton are the two marsupial bones attached to the pubis, which support the pouch.

They are, as we have said, all nocturnal animals; and they are all carnivorous: but they do not possess the same degree of power and energy as the carniv orous animals, properly so called and they are remarkable for stupidity, or at all events they do not display the same cunning as the fox, though their eyes resemble those of that animal. The habit is

It is not a little singular that marsupial animals should be found in two zones of the earth, which lie nearly on opposite meridians, the centre of the one about 120° east, and the other about 60° west of the meridian of London; aud that in all the districts between them there should be no animal of this character, or even approaching to it. What stage of the geological duration of countries may answer to animals of this singular order, it is not easy to say; for, though we admit that a few specimens have been found fossil in our own latitudes, it is impossible for us thence to conclude that the animals belong either to an early or a late stage of the country; for we have them in the rich woods of South America, and in the comparatively barren extent of New Holland, while there are none in Southern Africa, which is intermediate between these, and partakes of the characters of both.

In some of the species, the female is furnished with a distinct abdominal pouch for the reception of her young during a portion of the period of gestation, and as a place of safety occasionally till they are able to shift for themselves; and this pouch is more developed in some than in others.

The Virginian Opossum.-This species is by far the best known, from its abundance in the southern states. But as it is very generally distributed over America as far as the borders of Patagonia, or at all events to the margins of the Pampas, the name Virginian is by no means descriptive of it, as it is found over a range in latitude of certainly not less than five thousand miles, while the individuals are far more numerous in South than in North America, if the whole surface of each be taken.

The usual size of the opossum is the same as that of a cat; its covering consists of a mixture of black and white hairs, with the ears having the one part black and the other white. The head often entirely white. It is very generally distributed, inhabits the woods, is not timid in the vicinity of settled places, prowls about in the night, killing poultry, sucking eggs, and committing other little depredations; but we need hardly add that, to man, it is quite harmless. The young, which are often as many as seven in number, are exceedingly light and small, at the time of their birth, that is, the time of their first birth, when transferred from the internal uterus to the pouch. The gestation in the uterus lasts twenty-six days, at the end of which the young have no vestiges of eyes or of ears, and are, indeed, little else than small lumps of gelatinous matter. They do not open their eyes till about the fiftieth day; but they readily find out the teats in the pouch, and attaching themselves to these, they increase in size. They remain

The Virginian opossum, extending as it does over so vast a range in latitude, is subject to much variation of colour. There is also considerable difference between the appearance of the young ones and those which have arrived at perfect maturity. The body of the young animal is generally of a yellowish gray, mixed with some hairs entirely white, and others entirely black; the last of which are most abundant along the back, and give that part of the animal the appearance of being marked with a dorsal line. A band of a similar colour descends from each side of the neck to the fore legs; these legs and also the hind ones are covered with black hairs, and the tail is covered with scales, with a few short and weak hairs thinly interspersed. The hands, that is, the prehensile parts of the hind feet, the ears, and the point of the muzzle, are naked. The skin on the soles of the feet is violet black; but the toes and nails are flesh-coloured. The whiskers appear to be used as instruments of touch, as is the case with all mammalia which seek their prey by night; and it is presumed also, that the toes, which have a very delicate covering, are highly sensitive. The eyes are small, without any external lids, and are remarkable for their convexity and consequent projection beyond their sockets; and from this peculiar structure of the eye, it is probable that the animal sees only at short distances, but that its vision there is quite microscopick.

From the structure of the nose it is presumed that the sense of smell is very acute; but it cannot be very delicate in our way of estimating; for in that case the animal would be perfectly intolerable to itself, the odour which it emits when disturbed or threatened being described as one of the most offensive in nature.

In many parts of South America the opossum is so abundant that it prowls about in the villages. and even in the towns. D'Azzara mentions that they are frequently found lying dead in the villages, near the shores of La Plata, and even in the streets of Monte Video. He was the first to get a correct account of the marsupial apparatus of the female, which we shall give in nearly his own words: "The female has the whole length of the belly cleft or slit, and appearing like a person's waistcoat buttoned only at the top and bottom. This cavity the animal has the power of firmly closing. Within it are thirteen teats, extremely small, one in the centre, and the rest ranged round it."

Before the female comes to maturity, this marsepial apparatus is but little developed, there being only a slight fold of skin on each side the abdomen. After the young are weaned, the marsupium also collapses, and it is gradually reproduced as the time approaches when it is to receive a new litter.

HAVRE.

HAVRE is a large commercial town in the north of France, and is situated at the influx of the Seine into the English channel. This town is strongly fortified, being surrounded by walls and defended by a citadel, which is considered the most regular and best constructed in France. It is believed to have been founded by Louis XII., but when Francis I. ascended the throne, in 1515, it was but a mere creek, in which fishermen sought refuge in stormy weather, having only a chapel dedicated to our Lady of Grace, which has disappeared, and a tavern or house of refreshment, still existing, with a boat and boatman, rudely carved on stone, which was probably its sign. Francis I. built a town here, and fortified it against the English. By a curious destiny Francis lost the battle of Pavia and his liberty, and Havre was almost destroyed by an inundation in the same year. Restored to France, he reconstructed Havre, and in the port built a ship of a thousand tuns, colossal in his time, having on board a forge, windmill, chapel, tennis-court, and perfect in all respects-except that it would not float-as appears from Rabelais. In 1545, a fleet of two hundred vessels, in the roadstead of Havre, menaced Henry VIII. and England. Francis I. came to Havre with his court, and gave a grand fete on board the "Philip." During the rejoicing, the ship-kitchen took fire; the ship was instantly in a blaze, and the royal party had hardly left it when, in the midst of the flames, a hundred cannon, charged for the purpose of being fired off in honour of the fete, thunderVOL. IV.-48

ed with a single and most tremendous volley, by which the ship was destroyed, and several lives lost.

The reformed religion was that of the majority of the inhabitants of Havre; and the protestants called in the English to their aid in October, 1562. The English being obliged to surrender the town by capitulation, after twenty two days' siege, departed with the honours of war, and an epidemick, by which more than twenty thousand perished in London, during the three months succeeding the return of the fleet. Cardinal Richelieu, next to Francis I., was the great benefactor of this town. He improved the harbour, built fortresses, and established a foundry, every cannon from which, bore his name. bombarded by William III. in 1694, and by admiral Rodney in 1759. It was not till 1786 that the great publick works which now distinguish it were projected. Here Sir Sidney Smith, in 1796, by an enterprise of rare hardihood, cut out the French cruiser "Le Vengeur," and, by an equally bold manoeuvre of the second in command of the Vengeur, was taken into Havre on board his own prize.

Havre was

Bonaparte visited Havre for the first time in 1802, after the peace of Amiens, and saw its capabilities for being the first town in France in maritime commerce, and the best roadstead for the most numerous fleet. He again visited it in 1810, with the emperess Maria Louisa. To him Havre owes the great improvement of its port and its publick works. The cocks and sluices, on a peculiar site and grand scale, are the most important and interesting of the publick works. The docks form a segment of a vast circle,