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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1837 edition. Excerpt: ...bounds to their propagation. It may easily be proved by arithmetical calculation, that if a sow was to bring forth six pigs--two males and four females--and each of these was, in like manner, to produce each year six young ones, the breed, if living, would, at the end of twelve years, amount to 33,554,230! Several other animals, such as rabbits and cats, which go with young only a few weeks, would multiply with still greater rapidity; so great indeed, that, at the end of fifty years, the whole earth would not be sufficient to supply them with food, nor even to contain them. The Sea! The Sea!--I remember once travelling with a young gentleman from Paris to Boulogne, who had no motive for his journey except a desire to see the ocean. His curiosity on the subject was quite insatiable; all his questions were in some way or other connected with the sea; he was evidently a gentleman, and one of good education, and yet his mania was irresistible. One would have imagined him bewitched at his birth by a sea nymph, if a sea nymph could have had access to his cradle in la belle ville de Paris. How eager were his questions about sea fish and sea birds, and sea weeds and corals, and reefs, and rocks, and rigging, and anchors! He had evidently not associated much with the English, for he expected that even English ladies were well informed upon nautical matters. He had read, I believe, every book that had ever been written upon sea subjects., His eyes kindled, and his cheek flushed, when we talked of buccaniers; and more than once I asked him why he had not been a sailor. As we drew near the end of our wearisome journey, 1 certainly never saw any man so excited. He was constantly pointing to each blue streak that appeared on the horizon, and inquiring...