"Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorned the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing." Job xxxix. 5, &c. The swiftness of the Wild Ass is proverbial. Leo Africanus declares it "yields only to the horses of Barbary, and may well be said 'to scorn the multitude of the city,' that endeavour to ensnare him." One traveller writes thus respecting this animal:-"We gave chase," he says, "to two wild asses, but which had so much the speed of our horses, that when they got at some distance they stood still, and looked behind at us, snorting with their noses in the air, as if in contempt of our endea vours to catch them."* They are only taken by hunters having fresh relays of horses, and pursuing them until their strength is completely exhausted, and being worn out, they suffer themselves to be captured. But though "the wilderness is his house, and the barren lands his dwelling," still it is not every desert he approves; it is the barren and salt land wherein he delights. "So grateful is salt to his taste that he uniformly prefers brackish water to fresh, and selects for his food those plants that are impregnated with saline particles, or have bitter juices."+ Neither is it in the desert only the wild asses seek their stinted meal; we find them spoken of as withdrawing to the mountains when they can find better pasture and refreshing streams, of which it is especially declared, "that the beneficent Creator sendeth the springs into the valleys which run among the hills they give drink to every beast of the field, the wild asses quench their thirst." Psalm civ. 10, 11. But there are times when the burning sun of summer deprives him of those luxuries: when the grass fails, and the cooling rill ceases to flow, then "he stands in the high places, he snuffs up the wind like a dragon, his eyes fail because there is no grass." Jer. xiv. 6. The skin of the ass is used for various purposes; such as, for making drums, shoes, &c. and thick parchment for pocketbooks, which is slightly varnished over. Shagreen is also produced from it. ‡ Next allied to the wild ass, or onagra, is the Zebra, one of the "handsomest and most elegantly clothed of all the quadrupeds." It is generally less than the horse, and * Morier's Travels, vol. i. p. 201. + Paxton's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 152. larger than the ass; it is never completely manageable, and though one that Buffon speaks of had been broken in for the saddle, still two men held the bridle, while the third mounted him. He was restive like a vicious horse, and obstinate as a mule, but still he thinks if he had been early accustomed to restraint, he would have been both mild and tractable, fit to be substituted for either horse or ass. But not so the Camel, one of the most interesting animals that arose from the earth in obedience to the creative word, and so valuable to the Oriental nations that it is regarded as a special present from heaven, "a sacred creature without whose aid they could neither subsist, trade, or travel." Its milk affords them nourishment, its flesh they use for food, and the hair furnishes them with clothing. "As it is his lot to cross immense deserts where no water is to be found, he is endowed with the power, when |