his voice is as fine as the whistle
of the whip-poor-will! - Courage! - what is it, man? - what is't?«
    »A Prodigy! a lusus naturæ! a monster that nature has delighted to form, in
order to exhibit her power. Never before have I witnessed such an utter
confusion in her Laws, or a specimen that so completely bids defiance to the
distinctions of Class and Genera. Let me record its appearance,« fumbling for
his tabletts with hands that trembled too much to perform their office, »while
time and opportunity are allowed - eyes, enthralling. Colour, various, complex,
and profound -«
    »One would think the man was craz'd, with his enthralling looks and
pieball'd colours!« interrupted the discontented trapper, who began to grow a
little uneasy that his party was, all this time, neglecting to seek the
protection of some cover. »If there is a reptile in the brush, show me the
creatur' and should it refuse to depart peaceably, why there must be a quarrel
for the possession of the place.«
    »There!« said the Doctor pointing into a dense mass of the thicket, to a
spot within fifty feet of that where they both stood. The trapper turned his
look with perfect composure in the required direction, but the instant his
practised glance met the object which had so utterly upset the philosophy of the
naturalist, he gave a start, himself, threw his rifle rapidly forward and as
instantly recovered it, as if a second flash of thought convinced him he was
wrong. Neither the instinctive movement, nor the sudden recollection, was
without a sufficient object. At the very margin of the thicket, and in absolute
contact with the earth, lay an animate ball that might easily, by the
singularity and fierceness of its aspect, have justified the disturbed condition
of the naturalist's mind. It were difficult to describe the shape or colours of
this extraordinary substance, except to say in general terms that it was nearly
spherical and exhibited all the hues of the rainbow intermingled, without
reference to harmony and without any very ostensible design. The predominant
hues were a black and a bright vermillion. With these, however, the several
tints of white, yellow, and crimson, were strangely and wildly blended. Had this
been all, it would have been difficult to have pronounced that the object was
possessed of life, for it lay motionless as any stone: but a pair of dark,
glaring, and moving eye-balls, which watch'd with