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these animals, and say their flesh resembles a hare. They are easily tamed, and will then refuse no kind of food. 3. D. cayo pollin, the Mexican opossum of Buffon and Pennant, is of an ash color on the head and upper parts of the body the belly and legs are whitish: the tail is long and pretty thick, varied with brown and yellow; it is hairy near an inch from its origin, the rest naked: the length of the animal from nose to tail, about seven inches and a half; of the tail, more than eleven. It inhabits the mountains of Mexico, and lives in trees, where it brings forth its young: when in any fright, they embrace the parent closely. Her belly has no pouch. The tail is prehensile, and serves instead of a hand. 4. D. gigantea, the kangaroo. This animal has a small head, neck, and shoulders; the body increasing in thickness to the rump. The head is oblong, formed like that of a fan, and tapering from the eyes to the nose; end of the nose naked black; the upper lip divided. The nostrils are wide and open; the lower jaw is shorter than the upper; and the aperture of the mouth small: there are whiskers on both jaws, those on the upper longest; and strong hairs above and below the eyes. The eyes are not large; the irides are dusky; the pupil is of a bluish black. The ears are erect, oblongly ovated, rounded at the ends, and thin, covered with short hairs, four inches long. There are no canine teeth, but six broad cutting teeth in the upper jaw; two long lanceolated teeth in the lower, pointing forward; and four grinding teeth in each jaw, remote from the others. The belly is convex and great. The fore legs are very short, scarcely reaching to the nose, and useless for walking. The hind legs are almost as long as the body, and the thighs are very thick on the fore feet are five toes, with long conic and strong claws; on the hind feet only three; the middle toe is very long and thick, like that of an ostrich; the two others are placed very distinct from it, and are small; the claws are short, thick, and blunt: the bottom of the feet, and hind part, black, naked, and tuberculated, as the animal rests often on them. The tail is very long, extending as far as the ears; thick at the base, tapering to a point. The scrotum is large and pendulous. The hair on the whole animal is soft, and of an ash color. lightest on the lower parts. It inhabits the western side of New Holland, and has as yet been discovered in no other part of the world. It lurks among the grass, and feeds on vege tables; it goes entirely on its hind legs, making use of the fore feet only for digging, or bringing its food to its mouth. The dung is like that of a deer. It is very timid; at the sight of men it flies from them by amazing leaps, springing over bushes seven or eight feet high, and going progressively from rock to rock. It carries its tail quite at right angles with its body when it is in motion; and when it alights, often looks back. 5. D. murina, the murine opossum, has the face and upper parts of the body of a tawny color; the belly of a yellowish white the tail is slender, and covered with minute scales to the very rump: the length of the animal from ose to tail, about six inches and a half; the tail

of the same length; the female wants the false belly of the last; but on the lower part the skin forms on each side a fold, between which the teats are lodged. It inhabits the hot parts of South America; agrees with the others in its food, manners, and the prehensile power of its tail. Count de Buffon, from inspection, says the female has fourteen teats, and brings from ten to fourteen young ones at a time; they affix themselves to the teats as soon as they are born, and remain attached like inanimate things, till they attain growth and vigor to shift a little for themselves. 6. D. opossum, the sarigue of Buffon, or Molucca opossum of Pennant, has long, oval, and naked ears: the mouth is very wide; the lower side of the upper jaw, throat, and belly, is of a whitish ash color; the rest of the hair a cinereous brown, tipt with tawny, darkest on the back: the tail is as long as the body; near the base covered with hair; the rest naked; the claws are hooked. On the belly of the female is a pouch, in which the young shelter. Marcgrave found six young within the pouch. It has ten cutting teeth above, and eight below. Over each eye is an oblong white spot. The length of the animal from nose to tail is ten inches; and the tail exceeds the length of the head and body. Its whole figure is of a slender and elegant make. This species is found in great numbers in Aroe and Solor. It is called in the Indies pelandor Aroe, or the Aroe rabbit. They are reckoned very delicate eating, and are very common at the tables of the great, who rear the young in the same places in which they keep their rabbits. It inhabits also Surinam, and the hot parts of America. 7. D. tridactyla, Phillip's opossum, or the kangaroo rat, is described as similar, both in the general shape of the body and the conformation of the legs, to the kangaroo; but the visage having a strong resemblance to that of the rat, and the color of the whole not ill resembling that animal, it has obtained the name of the kangaroo rat. It is an inhabitant of New Holland; and two of the species were seen alive at the exhibition of animals over Exeter 'Change in 1790, where one of them brought forth young. This species has two cutting teeth in front of the upper jaw, with three others on each side of them; and at a distance one false grinder, sharp at the edge, and channelled or fluted on the sides; and close to these, two true grinders: in the lower jaw there are two long cutting teeth, formed like those of the squirrel, with three grinders corresponding with those in the upper jaw. 8. D. volans, the flying opossum, a beautiful species, and clothed with fur of the most exquisite texture, is an inhabitant of New South Wales. In length, from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, it is twenty inches; the tail itself is twenty-two inches; at the base, quite light, increasing gradually to black at the end: the ears are large and erect: the coat or fur is of a rich and most delicate texture, appearing on the upper parts of the body at first sight, of a glossy black; but on a nicer inspection, is found to be mixed with gray; the under parts are white, and on each hip is a tan-colored spot, nearly as big as a shilling; at this part the fur is thinnest, but at the

root of the tail it is so rich and close that the hide cannot be felt through it. The fur is also continued to the claws. On each side of the body is a broad flap or membrane (as in the flying squirrels), which is united to both the fore and hind legs. The jaws are furnished with teeth, placed as in some others of this genus: in the upper jaw forwards are four small cutting teeth, then two canine ones, and backwards five grinders: the under jaw has two long large cutting teeth and five grinders, with no intermediate canine ones, the space being quite vacant. The fore legs have five toes on each foot, with a claw on each; the hinder ones four toes, with, claws (the three outside ones without any separation), and a thumb without a claw, enabling the animal to use the foot as a hand, as many of the opossum tribe are observed to do.

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DIDEROT (Denys), a celebrated French writer, born at Langres in 1713. He was educated among the Jesuits, with a view to the church, and received the tonsure; but, disliking the profession, he was placed with a lawyer. This pursuit, however, he also abandoned, and thereby incurred his father's displeasure. IIe did not devote himself particularly to any one object of study; but his attention was at different times engrossed by geometry, metaphysics, and the belles lettres. In 1745 he published Principles of Moral Philosophy, 12mo. which first brought him into public notice as an author. Next year he published a piece, entitled Pensées Philosophiques, a work which gained him considerable fame, and was highly applauded by the partizans of the new philosophy, among whom he had now enrolled himself, and to the propagation of which he applied in the most zealous manner. He afterwards gave a second edition of this work, under the title of Etrennes aux Esprits Forts, which was eagerly read. About this period, having been concerned in a Medical Dictionary, it gave rise to the idea of the Dictionnaire Encyclopédique; and, in conjunction with his friend d'Alembert, the plan of this vast undertaking was formed. Diderot's share in this work was large, for, besides many articles in various departments of science, the whole of the arts and trades were furnished by him. Between the years 1751 and 1767, the first edition of the dictionary was completed; and although Diderot had labored almost twenty years upon it, he received but a small consideration. During this period, however, he composed various other works, particularly A Letter on the Blind, for the use of those who See; a work for which the author was confined six months at Vincennes, on account of the free sentiments it contained. About two years after, he published A Letter on the Deaf and Dumb, for the use of those who Hear and See, 2 vols. 12mo. His next productions were two comedies, in prose, Le Fils Naturel, 1757; and Le Pere de Famille, 1758, which latter has been thought one of the best sentimental comedies that ever appeared on the French stage. Besides the above-mentioned works, Diderot wrote A Panegyric on Richardson; and An Essay on the Life and Writings of Seneca, which was published in 1779, and was the last work of his pen. At the conclusion of

the Encyclopedie, he was obliged to dispose of his library. The empress of Russia became a purchaser; the price which the philosopher received was 50,000 livres; while he was to be allowed the use of it during his life. Diderot was a member of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin. He died suddenly as he rose from table, July 31st, 1784. His works have been collected and published in 6 vols. 8vo.

DIDO, or ELISSA, a daughter of Belus, king of Tyre, who married Sichæus or Sicharbas her uncle, priest of Hercules. Her brother, Pygmalion, who succeeded Belus, murdered Sichæus, to get possession of his immense riches; and Dido, disconsolate for the loss of her husband, whom she tenderly loved, and by whom she was equally esteemed, set sail in quest of a settlement, with a number of Tyrians, to whom the cruelty of the tyrant had become odious. According to some writers, she threw into the sea the riches of her husband, which Pygmalion so greedily desired; and by that artifice compelled those ships to fly with her that had come by order of the tyrant to obtain the riches of Sichæus. But it is more probable that she carried the riches along with her, and by their influence prevailed on the Tyrian seamen to follow her. During her voyage, Dido visited the coast of Cyprus, where she obtained fifty wives for her Tyrian followers. A storm drove her fleet on the African coast, where she bought of the inhabitants as inuch land as could be surrounded by a bull's hide cut into thongs. Upon this land she built a citadel, called Byrsa; and the increase of population, and the rising commerce among her subjects, soon obliged her to enlarge her city, and the boundaries of her dominions. Her beauty, as well as the fame of her enterprise, gained her many admirers; and her subjects wished to compel her to marry Iarbas, king of Mauritania, who threatened them with a dreadful war. Dido begged three months to give her decisive answer; and during that time she erected a funeral pile, as if wishing by a solemn sacrifice to appease the manes of Sichæus, to whom she had promised eternal fidelity. When all was prepared, she stabbed herself on the pile in presence of her people; and by this uncommon action, obtained the name of Dido, 'valiant woman,' instead of Elissa. According to Virgil and Ovid, the death of Dido was caused by the sudden departure of Æneas, of whom she was deeply enamoured, and whom she could not obtain as a husband. This poetical fiction represents Eneas as living in the age of Dido, and introduces an anachronism of nearly 300 years. Dido left Phoenicia 247 years after the age of Æneas, and about A.A.C. 953. This chronological error proceeded not from the ignorance of the poets, but from a voluntary fiction. While Virgil describes, in a beautiful episode, the desperate love of Dido, and the submission of Eneas to the will of the gods, he traces the origin of the hatred between the republics of Rome and Carthage, and pretends that it was kindled by a more remote cause than the jealousy and rivalship of two flourishing empires. Dido, after her death, was honored as a deity by her subjects.

DIDOT (Ambrose), a celebrated French typographer, was born at Paris in 1730. Ilis

father was a printer and bookseller, and, having received a classical education, he materially improved various branches of his business, and the trades connected with it. The manufacture of fine paper received his early attention, and he invented many machines and instruments in aid of stereotyping. His edition of the Delphin classics, and various other works, will long distinguish his name. One of his sons became a celebrated type-founder, another shared with his father the reputation of being one of the first printers in Europe. His anxiety for accuracy is said to have been so great, that at the age of seventy-three, he read five times over each sheet of his son's edition of Montaigne. He died at Paris in 1804.

DIDUCTION, n. s. Lat. diductio. Separation by withdrawing one part from the other.

He ought to shew what kind of strings they are which, though strongly fastened to the inside of the receiver and superficies of the bladder, must draw as forcibly one as another, in comparison of those that within the bladder draw so as to hinder the diduction of its sides. Boyle.

DIDUS, or DoDe, in ornithology, a genus belonging to the order of gallina. The bill is contracted in the middle by two transverse ruga; each mandible is inflected at the point; and the face is bare behind the eyes. Only one species, viz. the ineptus, is mentioned by Linnæus: three are described by Buffon, viz. :

1. D. ineptus, the dronte of Buffon, or hooded dodo, is somewhat bigger than a swan, and nearly three feet in length. The bill is strong, large, and hooked at the end; the gape stretches beyond the eyes: the color is a very pale blue, except the end of the upper mandible, which is yellowish, and a red spot on the bend of it; the end of the lower is blackish; the irides are white. The general color of the plumage is cinereous, and soft to the touch; the belly and thighs are whitish. The head is large, and seems as it were covered with a black hood or cowl. The wings are very short, and of a yellowish ashcolor: the tail feathers are curled, stand up on the rump, and incline to yellow. The legs have four toes, three before and one behind; are very stout, short, and yellowish; the claws are black. It inhabits the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon in the Indian Ocean.

2. D. Nazarenus, the Nazarene dodo is bigger than a swan. The bill is a little bent downwards and large instead of feathers, the whole is covered over with a black down; but the wings are feathered, and it has some frizzled ones upon the rump, which serve instead of a tail: the legs are long and scaly, and there are three toes on each foot. This was met with in the Isle of France, and described as above by Fr. Cauche; who adds, that the female lays only one egg, which is white, and as big as a penny loaf, and that there is always found with it a white stone of the size of a hen's egg; that it makes its nest of leaves and dry herbs, in the forests, on the ground; and that there is likewise found a gray stone in the gizzard of the young bird.

3. D. solitarius, the solitaire of Buffon, or solitary dodo, is a large bird, and the male is said to weigh sometimes forty-five pounds. The neck

is of a proportionable length, and the eye black and lively: the head is not crested, and the general color of the plumage is gray and brown mixed: it has scarce any tail, and the bastard wing swells out into a round knob: the wings are too short for flight; and the hind parts are rounded like a horse's rump, being clothed with feathers, which may be termed coverts. The females are covered with sometimes brown, and sometimes light yellow feathers, and appear very beautiful. The feathers on each side of the breast enlarge into two white tufts, somewhat resembling the bosom of a woman. Those of the thighs are rounded at the end like shells; and, according to Leguat, the bird has altogether a noble and elegant gait. It is an inhabitant of the Isle of Rodrigue, where it is not uncommon; but not met with in flocks, scarcely more than two being found together. It makes its nest in by-places, of the leaves of the palm, a foot and a half in thickness; and lays one egg, bigger than that of a goose. The male sits in his turn; and does not suffer any bird to approach within 200 yards of the spot while the hen is sitting, which is seven weeks. They are chased in the winter season, viz. from March to September, being then fat; and the young birds are much esteemed for the table.

DIDYMUS, of Alexandria, an ecclesiastical writer of the fourth century; who though he is said to have lost his sight at five years of age, when he had scarcely learned to read, yet applied so earnestly to study, that he was thought worthy to fill the chair in the famous divinity school at Alexandria. He was the author of a great number of works: but all we have now remaining are, a Latin Translation of his book upon the Holy Spirit, in the works of St. Jerome, who was the translator; Short Strictures on the Canonical Epistles; and a book against the Manichees.

DIDYNAMIA; from δις, twice, and δυναμις, power; the name of the fourteenth class in Linnæus's sexual method; consisting of plants with hermaphrodite flowers, which have four male organs, two long and two short. See BOTANY.

DIE, v. n. Goth. deia; Sax. daedian; Dan. and Swed. do; from Gr. dedw, to fear, because death is generally an object of fear, says Minsheu, ingeniously. To lose or depart from life; taking by before an instrument of death; of before a disease, or a positive cause of death; and for before a privative; to sink or faint; grow vapid; to vanish; perish; be doomed to hell.

For wher we lyuen, we lyuen to the Lord, and whether we dien, we dien to the Lord, therefore wher we lyuen or dien we ben of the Lord.

stone.

Wiclif. Romayns. 14. His heart died within him, and he became as a 1 Samuel. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth

much fruit.

If I die for it, as no less is threatened me,

my old master must be relieved.

John. the king

Shakspeare. King Lear How now, my lord, why do you keep alone Of sorriest fancies your companion making, Using those thoughts which should indeed have died With them they think on.

Id. Macbeth.

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Talk not of life or ransom, he replies;
Patroclus dead, whoever meets me, dies:
In vain a single Trojan sues for grace;
But least the sons of Priam's hateful race;
Die then, my friend! what boots it to deplore?
The great, the good Patroclus is no more!
He, far thy better, was foredoomed to die;
And thou, dost thou, bewail mortality?

Pope's Homer. They often come into the world clear, and with the appearance of sound bodies; which, notwithstanding, have been infected with disease, and have died of it, or at least have been very infirm. Wiseman.

Thy body dies; but thou, thou must live for ever, and thine eternity will take its tincture from the manner of thy behaviour, and the habits thou contractest, during this thy short co-partnership with flesh and

blood.

If the man who turnips cries, Cry not when his father dies, "Tis a proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father.

Mason.

Dr. Johnson.

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of the supreme council. In 1631 he returned to

In

Holland as commander of the India fleet, but the following year went out again as director general; and not long after was appointed governor general, in which station he greatly extended the Dutch interest and power in the east. 1642 he sent Abel Tasman on a voyage to the south, the consequence of which was the discovery of the island near the south coast of New Holland, which Tasman named Van Diemen's Land. He died in 1645.

DIEMEN'S (Van) LAND, an island of Australasia, to the south of New Holland, from which it is separated by Bass's Straits; having its north coast in S. lat. 40° 41', and its southern promontory in 43° 38′ S. Its length is about 170 miles, and breadth about 154. It was first seen by the Dutch commander, Tasman, in 1642, who, mistaking it for a part of what was then called the Great South Land, or New Holland, gave it its present name, in honor of the Dutch governor-general of Batavia, Anthony Van Die

men.

But the Dutch did not land here at this time; Tasman's carpenter only swam through the surf, 'with the prince's flag, and a post, to set up as a memorial of their visit, to the posterity of the inhabitants of this country.' Our own enterprising navigators, Furneaux, Cook, Hayes, and above all Mr. Bass, the companion of captain Flinders, have far better pretensions to be called its discoverers. Furneaux and Cook anchored in Adventure Bay, and the latter had some communication with the islanders; subsequently, Bligh and captain Cox put into Adventure and Oyster Bay; and, in 1794, captain Hayes, of the Bombay marine, sailed up

what he named the Derwent River. But none of these navigators, nor yet the French, under d'Entrecasteaux, who discovered Storm Bay, supposed this to be an island; a fact which Mr. Bass first announced in the close of 1798, after tracing 600 miles of the coasts in this neighbourhood, in a small decked whale-boat. Together with captain Flinders, he also first visited Port Dalrymple.

The general appearance of this island is diversified by ranges of moderate hills and broad valleys, having a fine soil. The hills, the ridges of which form,' according to Mr. Evans, irregular circles, are for the greater part wooded; and, from their summits, are to be seen levels of good pasture-land, thinly interspersed with trees, the grass growing most luxuriantly. These beautiful plains are generally of the extent of 8000 or 10,000 acres; and this description is to be considered as common to the whole of the island.' The southern extremity terminates in a promontory, whose shape corresponds with, but whose height exceeds, that of the Table Mountain, of the Cape of Good Hope, and to which has been given the same name. The height of the Table, behind Hobart Town, is 3961 feet; that of the Cape 3315. The former is covered with snow for seven or eight months in the year. To the eastward of the Tamar is a considerable mountain, named Ben Lomond, whose height has not been ascertained; and another called Tasman's Peak. There is also a lofty mountain on the north-western part of the island, and a range of hills, called the Asbestos Hills, from the great quantity of that substance found in them. In the south-west part of the island, at the distance of about sixty miles to the north-west of Hobart Town, are the Western Mountains, whose height is computed to exceed 3000 feet. A beautiful lake, in the midst of the last-mentioned range, was visited, for the first time, in 1817, by Mr. Beaumont, the provost-marshal of the island. The principal branch of the Derwent is supposed to flow from it, and he describes it as about fifty miles in circumference, and having its banks moderately clothed with wood. About the middle of the island are saltpan plains, on which are several small lakes, the waters of which are strongly impregnated with salt, and from which many tons of this article are annually extracted. On all the lakes and rivers are water-fowl in abundance.

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The climate is described as exceedingly fine and congenial to Englishmen. 'It is in fact,' says the Quarterly Review, England with a finer sky, with less of its winter frosts and of its autumnal and spring moisture; all the fruits and vegetables of an English kitchen-garden are, without difficulty, raised here.' During summer the ordinary course of the weather is the alternate land and sea breeze, the former commencing early in the morning, and prevailing till noon, when it is succeeded by the latter, which usually lasts till after sun-set. Occasionally, however, a hot wind blows from the north or north-west, which, though resembling that of New South Wales, which there raises the thermometer to 106 in the shade, is greatly mitigated in Van Diemen's Land, by passing across Bass's Straits.

The autumn is generally a serene and delightful season, and the weather continues fine and open to the middle or end of May. In June, rain, sleet, and, in elevated situations, snow, set in, with strong southerly gales; but, even in winter, fine weather intervenes, and neither wind nor rains can be said to be periodical. Slight frosts occur at night, but neither ice nor snow remains throughout the day in the valleys and plains. In September the spring rapidly advances, and in October the weather resembles the 'faithless April of an English May.'

Van Diemen's Land has four principal ports, connected with its rivers: Storm Bay, terminating with the Derwent; Port Dalrymple, or the Tamar; Port Macquarie, and Port Davey. The river Derwent, besides its direct outlet into Storm Bay, has a lateral one into Storm Bay Passage, canal d'Entrecasteaux, a strait about thirty miles long; dividing the large island Bruny from the main land, and continuing from two to five miles wide, till it opens to the Southern Ocean, at Tasman's Head. This large inlet presents every where bold shores and deep water, perfectly sheltered from all winds, and forming a noble port. The Derwent, at its entrance, is two miles broad, and takes a northerly course, which varies in breadth from one to two miles, expanding, occasionally, into large basins equally deep and safe for the distance of twentyfive miles, to which point ships of 500 tons burden can navigate with ease. Here the river begins to freshen, and continues hence for the distance of forty miles, narrowing gradually, but affording a safe passage for vessels of fifty tons as far as New Norfolk, where a ridge of rocks forms a rapid, and abruptly terminates the navigation.

Twelve miles up the Derwent, on the western bank, stands Hobart Town, the capital of the island, picturesquely placed under the Table Mountain already named. Down its side trill several rivulets, one of the most considerable of which passes through the town, and discharges itself into Sullivan's Cove. The town is laid out on an extensive and regular plan, and has many handsome brick houses; but the majority of the buildings are of wood and plaster. There are very few that are not white-washed (for lime abounds in the neighbourhood), and glazed; and each has a paled garden. Several respectable public buildings are either completed or in progress; as a large church of brick and stone, a government-house, a county-jail, store and commissariat offices, a barrack for 100 men, and a small hospital, fenced in together; a battery, guard-house, magazine, &c. The farms of settlers extend principally along the banks of the Derwent, from the entrance of the river from Storm Bay Passage; for the shores of Van Diemen's Land have often a rich black mould close to the edge of the cliff. On the Hobart side, the most considerable group of settlements is New Town, about two miles from Hobart Town, and is watered by a fine stream. A little below Hobart Town, on the opposite bank, is the settlement of Clarence Plains.

To the eastward, upon the north and east sides of an extensive salt-water inlet, communi

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