Copy 1, Volume 2

A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith.

  • Oliver Goldsmith
Date:
[between 1800 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    443/450 page 415
    CHAP. V. THE CAMELOPARD. WERE we to be told of an animal so tall, that a man on horseback could, with ease, ride under its belly, without stooping, we should hardly give credit to the relation; yet of this extraordinary size is the camelopard, an animal that inhabits the deserts of Africa, and the accounts of which are so well ascertained, that we cannot deny our assent to their authority. It is no easy matter to form an adequate idea of this creature’s size, and the oddity of its formation. It exhibits somewhat the slender shape of the deer, or the camel, but destitute of their symmetry, or their easy power of motion. The head somewhat resqmbles that of the deer, with two round horns, near a foot long, and which, it is probable, it sheds as deer are found to do; its neck resembles that of a horse; its legs and feet those of the ‘ deer, but with this extraordinary difference, that the fore- legs are near twice as long as the hinder. As these creatures have been found eighteen feet high, and ten from the ground to the top of the shoulder, so allowing three feet for the depth of the body, seven feet remains, which is high enough to admit a man mounted on a middle-sized horse. The hinder part, however, is much lower, so that wrhen the animal appears standing, and at rest, it has somewhat the appearance of a dog sitting; and this formation of its legs gives it an awkward and a laborious motion, which, though swift, must yet be tiresome. For this reason, the camelopard is an animal very rarely found, and only finds refuge in the most internal desert regions of Africa. The dimensions of a young one, as they were accurately taken by a person who examined its skin, that was brought from the Cape of Good Hope, were found to be as follow: the length of the head was one foot eight inches; the height of the fore-leg, from the ground to the top of the shoulder, was ten feet; from the shoulder to the top of the head was seven; the height of the hind-leg was eight feet five inches; and from the top of the shoulder to the insertion of the tail was just seven feet long.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3