FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134  
135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  
s, there would probably be so great a falling off in the yield and value of feathers in birds kept under artificial conditions in England that the speculation would not be likely to pay." "Do the hens sit on their eggs, as ordinary hens?" "Just the same," Mr Harvey answered, "and very funny they look with their long legs sticking out. Not only does the hen sit, but the cock takes his turn at keeping the eggs warm when the mother goes out to feed." "I shall ask father," Dick said, "when we get back, to arrange to take these fifteen ostriches as part of his share of the venture; it would be great fun to see them stalking about." "Ah! we have not got them home yet," Mr Harvey replied, smiling; "we must not be too sanguine. We have certainly begun capitally, but there is no saying what adventures are before us yet. We have been particularly fortunate in seeing nothing of the tzetze fly. As you know, we have made several considerable detours to avoid tracts of country where they are known to prevail, still, occasionally they are met with in unexpected places, and I have seldom made a trip without losing some of my horses and cattle from them." "How is it that a fly can kill a horse? They are not larger than our blue-bottles at home, for I saw one in a naturalist's window in Pieter-Maritzburg." "It is a mystery, Dick, which has not yet been solved; there are flies in other parts of the world, whose bite is sufficiently poisonous to raise bumps underneath the skins of animals, but nothing approaching the tzetze in virulence. It certainly appears unaccountable that the venom of so small a creature should be able to kill a great animal like a horse or an ox." "Is it found only in the south of Africa?" "No, Dick, it extends more or less over the whole of the plateau-lands of Africa, and is almost as great a scourge in the highlands of Egypt as it is here." "I wonder," Dick said thoughtfully, "why the tzetze was created; most insects are useful as scavengers, or to furnish food for birds, but I cannot see the use of a fly which is so terribly destructive as this." "I can't tell you, my boy," Mr Harvey said. "That everything, even the tzetze has a good purpose, you may be sure, even though it is hidden from us. Possibly, for example, it may be discovered some day that the tzetze is an invaluable medicine for some disease to which man is subject, just as blistering powder is obtained from the crest-body
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134  
135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
tzetze
 

Harvey

 

Africa

 

animal

 

creature

 
solved
 
mystery
 

Maritzburg

 
Pieter
 

naturalist


window

 

animals

 
approaching
 

virulence

 
appears
 

underneath

 
sufficiently
 
poisonous
 

unaccountable

 

purpose


hidden

 

Possibly

 

discovered

 

powder

 

blistering

 

obtained

 

subject

 

invaluable

 

medicine

 

disease


destructive

 
terribly
 

plateau

 

scourge

 

highlands

 
extends
 

furnish

 
scavengers
 

insects

 
thoughtfully

created
 

keeping

 
mother
 
sticking
 

fifteen

 

ostriches

 
arrange
 

father

 
artificial
 

conditions