plants, which therefore must have continued to vegetate in part of the ark destined for a confervatory. The animals again are directed to be male and female; many of which, within the twelvemonth, would have procreated; and from what ftores on board the ark was this numerous offspring to be supe ported?

The deluge, if univerfal, likewife continuing for a twelvemonth, all the annual plants of the globe must have been destroyed, not to mention both fhrubs and trees, many of which would have loft all vegetative power, after they had been covered fo long by water, either fresh or falt.'

The advocates for a general deluge, urge, that shells of marine animals are found on the tops of mountains, which tould not be conveyed thither by any other method.

Our author answers, firft, that fuppofing the whole globe to be covered with water, what could have been the induce→ ment to the fhell-fish, many of which perhaps cannot move, to defert their proper habitation in the bed of the fea, in order to tranfport themselves to the top of an inland mountain, where they must immediately ftarve for want of their ufual nourishment ?

2dly. That fuch foffils in the cabinets of virtuosi are often reported by the feller to have been found in fuch places, con trary to the real fact, as the fpecimen, with many collectors, is on that account more valued,

3dly. That the fuppofed fhells, impreffions of plants, &c. are not always examined with fufficient candor and accuracy.

And, laftly, that fubterraneous infects may have occafioned many of these strong resemblances to plants, or lufufes, either by their claws, or antennæ, or perhaps by emitting a liquor, which may both excavate and discolour the stone, or other body, on which they may happen to work.

This hypothefis, though our author has taken fome pains to fhew its probability, will certainly be reckoned among the lufufes' of ingenious men.

The latter part of this tract is an explanation of the Mofaic account of the deluge. The point in controverfy depends principally upon the fignification of the word earth. Our au

thor fuppofes, that this term is to be confined to the coun try, where Noah lived; and very rightly obferves, that it is ufed in this limited fenfe by many other writers, both facred and profane.

XII. The Hiftory of the Gwedir Family, by Sir John Wynne, the firft baronet of that name, who was born in 1553.

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What

What feems to be most interesting in this piece are fome anecdotes and circumftances, which relate to the more immediate ancestors of the author, as they are ftrongly characteristic of the manners and way of living in the principality, during that period. In other refpects, it has only the merit of a Welch pedigree.

XIII. A Letter intended for Dodfley's Museum, on the English and French writers. The plan of this piece is taken from The Battle of the Books.

XIV. A Dialogue on the Ancient Tragedies, written at Oxford in 1746.

XV. Ohthere's Voyage, and the Geography of the 9th Century illuftrated.

Ohthere's Voyage to the Northern Seas is included in the Anglo-Saxon verfion of Orofius, tranflated and published by Mr. Barrington in 1773.

When king Alfred* came to this part of Orofius's Geography, it is fuppofed, that he confulted Ohthere and Wulfftan, who had lived in the northern parts of Europe, which the ancients were little acquainted with, and took down this account from their own mouths.

This is a curious relique of antiquity. But the geography is obfcure and uncertain. And our northern travellers moft probably amufed his majefty with ftories of their own invention, the known privilege of travellers.

XVI. The Journal of a Spanish Voyage, in 1775, to ex plore the Coast of America, northward of California.

This account of an eight months navigation on the unfrequented coaft of America, to the latitude of 57° 57′ will be a ufeful addition to geography, especially as Capt. Cook had fo few opportunities of examining the fame continent, having, it is faid, been prevented by unfavourable winds.

In the course of these differtations the learned and ingenious author has taken occafion to explode several vulgar errors; for which he particularly deferves the thanks of every philofophi

cal reader.

Hiftory of Quadrupeds. In two Volumes. 4to. 17. 11. 6 d. ✓ White.

I cannot but afford great fatisfaction to all the lovers of na tural knowledge, to fee a general Hiftory of Quadrupeds exccuted by fuch a mafer in that fcience as the author of Bri

tish Zoology. The work which he now prefents to the public, we are informed, was originally intended for private amusement, and as an index, for the more ready turning to any particular animal in M. De Buffon's voluminous History of Quadrupeds: but as it fwelled to a fize beyond the author's first expectation, he was induced to communicate it to the world.

Though Mr. Pennant has erected his fyftem chiefly on the bafis of that of M. De Buffon, he is far from restricting his researches to the information delivered by that ingenious and agreeable author. For, by his own obfervations, as well as by those which have been communicated to him by his numerous friends, he has made great additions to the fubject. With how much judgment he has arranged the materials of this great work, will appear from his remarks on the fyftems of preceding naturalifts, and the particular method which himself has followed. Of the various fyftems which have been invented, he thus delivers his fentiments.

The Synopfis of our illuftrious countryman, Mr. Ray, has been long out of print; and though, from his enlarged knowTedge and great industry one might well fuppofe his work would for fome time difcourage all further attempts of the fame fort, yet a republication of that Synopfis would not have answered our prefent defign: for, living at a period when the study of natural history was but beginning to dawn in these kingdoms, and when our contracted commerce deprived him of many lights we now enjoy, he was obliged to content himself with giving defcriptions of the few animals brought over here, and collecting the rest of his materials from other writers. Yet fo correct was his genius, that we view a fyftematic arrangement arife even from the chaos of Aldrovandus and Gefner. Under his hand the indigested matter of these able and copious writers affumes a new form, and, the whole is made clear and perfpicuous.

From this period every writer on these fubjects proposed his own method as an example; fome openly, but others more covertly, aiming at the honour of originality, and attempting to feek for fame in the path chalked out by Mr. Ray; but too often without acknowleging the merit of the guide.

Mr. Klein, in 1751, made his appearance as a systematic writer on quadrupeds, and in his first order follows the general arrangement of Mr. Ray; but the change he has made of fepa-. rating certain animals, which the laft had confolidated, are executed with great judgment. He feems less fortunate in his fecond order; for, by a fervile regard to a method taken from the number of toes, he has jumbled together moft oppofite animals; the camel and the floth, the mole and the bat, the glutton and apes; happy only in throwing back the walrus, the feal, and the

manati,

manati, to the extremity of his fyftem: I fuppofe, as animals nearly bordering on another clafs.

• M. Briffon, in 1756, favoured the world with another fyf tem, arranging his animals by the number or defect of their teeth; beginning with those that were toothlefs, fuch as the ant eater, and ending with thofe that had the greatest number, fuch as the opoffum. By this method, laudable as it is in many ref pects, it must happen unavoidably that fome quadrupeds, very diftant from each other in their manners, are too closely connected in his fyftem; a defect which, however common, fhould be carefully avoided by every naturalift.

In point of time, Linnæus ought to have the precedence ; for he published his first fyftem in 1735. This was followed by feveral others, varying conftantly in the arrangement of the animal kingdom, even to the last edition of 1766. It is, therefore, difficult to defend, and still more ungrateful to drop any reflec tions on a naturalist, to whom we are fo greatly indebted. The variations in his different fyftems may have arifen from the new and continual difcoveries that are made in the animal kingdom; from his fincere intention of giving his fyftems additional improvements; and perhaps from a failing, (unknown indeed to many of his accufers) a diffidence in the abilities he had exerted in his prior performances. But it must be allowed, that the naturalift ran too great a hazard in imitating his prefent guife; for in another year he might put on a new form, and have left the complying philofopher amazed at the metamorphofis.

But this is not my only reafon for rejecting the fyftem of this otherwise able naturalift: there are faults in his arrangement of mammalia, that oblige me to separate myself, in this one inftance, from his crowd of votaries; but that my feceffion may not appear the effect of whim or envy, it is to be hoped that the following objections will have their weight.

I reject his first divifion, which he calls primates, or chiefs of the creation; because my vanity will not fuffer me to rank mankind with apes, monkies, maucaucos, and bats, the companions Linnæus has allotted us even in his last fyftem.

The fecond order of bruta I avoid for much the fame reafon: the most intelligent of quadrupeds, the half reafoning elephant, is made to affociate with the most difcordant and stupid of the creation, with floths, ant-eaters, and armadillos, or with manaties and walrufes, inhabitants of another element.

• The third order of feræ is not more admiffible in all its articles; for it will be impoffible to allow the mole, the fhrew, and the harmless hedge-hog, to be the companions of lions, wolves, and bears we may err in our arrangement,

"Sed non ut placidis coeant immitia, non ut

Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni."

• In his arrangement of his fourth and fifth orders we quite agree, except in the fingle article noctilio, a fpecies of bat, which

hap

happening to have only two cutting teeth in each jaw, is feparated from its companions, and placed with fquirrels, and others of that clafs.

• The fixth order is made up of animals of the hoofed tribe; but of genera fo different in their nature, that notwithstanding we admit them into the fame divifion, we place them at fuch. diftances from each other, with fo many intervening links and, foftening gradations, as will, it may be hoped, leffen the fhock of seeing the horse and the hippopotame in the fame piece. To avoid this as much as poffible, we have flung the laft into the back ground, where it will appear more tolerable to the critic, than if they were left in a manner conjoined.,

The laft order is that of whales: which, it must be confeffed, have, in many refpects, the structure of land animals; but their want of hair and feet, their fifh-like form, and their conftant refidence in the water, are arguments for feparating. them from this clafs, and forming them into another, independ ent of the rest.

But while I thus freely offer my objections against embracing this fyftem of quadrupeds, let me not be fuppofed infenfible of the other merits of this great and extraordinary perfon: his. arrangement of fifh, of infects, and of fhells, are original and excellent; he hath, in all his claffes, given philofophy a new language; hath invented apt names, and taught the world a brevity, yet a fulness of defcription, unknown to paft ages: he hath with great induftry brought numbers of fynonyms of every animal into one point of view; and hath given a concise account of the ufes and manners of each, as far as his observation extend-. ed, or the information of a numerous train of travelling dif ciples could contribute: his country may triumph in producing fo vaft a genius, whofe fpirit invigorates fcience in all that chil ly region, and diffufes it from thence to climates more favourable, which gratefully acknowledge the advantage of its influences.'

It may next be proper to lay before our readers the plan ́which Mr. Pennant has followed in the diftribution of qua drupeds.

I copy, fays he, Mr. Ray, in his greater divifions of animals into hoofed, and digitated; but, after the manner of Mr. Klein, form feparate genera of the rhinoceros, hippopotame, tapiir, and muík. The camel being a ruminating animal, wanting the upper fore-teeth, and having the rudiments of hoofs, is placed in the first order, after the mufk, a hornlefs cloven-hoofed quadruped.

The apes are continued in the fame rank Mr. Ray has placed them, and are followed by the maucaucos.

• The carnivorous animals deviate but little from his system, and are arranged according to that of Linnæus, after omitting the feal, mole, fhrew, and hedge-hog.

The herbivorous or frugivorous quadrupeds keep here the

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fame