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.