proached me often, and ever as I
receded, it continued to advance. I believe nothing but the little
lamp, I carried, was my protector. I kept it between us, whilst I wrote,
making it serve the double purpose of luminary and shield. But you shall
hear the character of the beast, and you may then judge of the risks we
promoters of science run in behalf of mankind."

The naturalist raised his tablets to the heavens, and disposed himself
to read as well as he could, by the dim light they yet shed upon the
plain; premising with saying--

"Listen, girl, and you shall hear, with what a treasure it has been my
happy lot to enrich the pages of natural history!"

"Is it then a creature of your forming?" said Ellen, turning away from
her fruitless examination, with a sudden lighting of her sprightly blue
eyes, that showed she knew how to play with the foible of her learned
companion.

"Is the power to give life to inanimate matter the gift of man? I would
it were! You should speedily see a Historia Naturalis Americana, that
would put the sneering imitators of the Frenchman, De Buffon, to shame!
A great improvement might be made in the formation of all quadrupeds;
especially those in which velocity is a virtue. Two of the inferior
limbs should be on the principle of the lever; wheels, perhaps, as they
are now formed; though I have not yet determined whether the improvement
might be better applied to the anterior or posterior members, inasmuch
as I am yet to learn whether dragging or shoving requires the greatest
muscular exertion. A natural exudation of the animal might assist in
overcoming the friction, and a powerful momentum be obtained. But all
this is hopeless--at least for the present!"--he added, raising his
tablets again to the light, and reading aloud; "Oct. 6, 1805. that's
merely the date, which I dare say you know better than I--mem.
Quadruped; seen by star-light, and by the aid of a pocket-lamp, in
the prairies of North America--see Journal for Latitude and Meridian.
Genus--unknown; therefore named after the discoverer, and from the
happy coincidence of being seen in the evening--Vespertilio Horribilis,
Americanus. Dimensions (by estimation)--Greatest length, eleven feet;
height, six feet; head, erect; nostrils, expansive; eyes, expressive
and fierce; teeth, serrated and abundant; tail, horizontal, waving,
and slightly feline; feet, large and hairy; talons, long, curvated,
dangerous; ears, inconspicuous; horns, elon