celestial ether (inferred from the retardation
of Encke's comet) extends infinitely in all
directions, in a firmament geometrically
infinite.  Secondly, that the ponderable
universe is distributed through all ethereal
space, without its being possible that any
finite boundary, how vast soever we may
conceive it to be, can contain the whole of this
ponderable universe.

A WONDERFUL WILD BEAST.

NEARLY a hundred years ago that part
of Languedoc now called the department of
the Lozère, but more popularly known as the
Cevennes, was frightened from its propriety
by the sudden apparition of a strange,
ferocious animal, whose reported devastations
can only be likened to the outrages
committed by the celebrated Dragon of Wantley.
Whence this creature came no one knew; as to
what he was like no two persons could agree;
but the terror inspired by his presence was
universal.  The district which he especially
haunted procured for him the name of The
Wild Beast of the Gévaudan; by which
designation—occasionally shortened to The Wild
Beast par excellence,—he soon became
famous, not only in the south of France, but
throughout the country, and even in foreign
lands.  It was an item of the news of the day
to report his proceedings: bulletins of the
slaughter of which he was the hero were
regularly published; and, at last, like our own
Nelson, he had a Gazette to himself.  In this
proclamation the qualities which shone so
conspicuously in him were rated at the value
of two thousand crowns, that sum being
offered for his head.

It was in the month of September, in the
year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-
four, that the attention of the police was first
directed to the ravages of this monster; whose
innate cruelty or furious appetite threatened
to depopulate the entire region which he
infested.  Even women and children flew
for their lives wherever he made his appearance.
The earliest account of what he
did and what he was supposed to be like,
is thus set forth in the official journal of
Paris:—

"A very strange wild beast has lately
appeared in the neighbourhood of Langagne and
the forest of Mercoire which has occasioned
great commotion.  It has already devoured
twenty persons, chiefly children, and particularly
young girls, and scarcely a day passes
without some accident.  The terror he
occasions prevents the woodcutters from working
in the forests; so that wood has become dear.
Those who have seen him say he is much
higher than a wolf, low before, and his feet
are armed with talons.  His hair is reddish,
his head large, and the muzzle of it is shaped
like that of a greyhound; his ears are small
and straight; his breast is wide, and of a grey
colour; his back streaked with black; and
his mouth, which is large, is provided with a
set of teeth so very sharp that they have
taken off several heads as clean as a razor
could have done.  He is of amazing swiftness;
but, when he aims at his prey, he crouches so
close to the ground, that he hardly appears to
be bigger than a large fox; and, at the
distance of some one or two toises, he rises
upon his hind legs and springs upon his prey,
seizing it by the neck or throat.  He is
afraid of oxen, which he runs away from.
The consternation is dreadful throughout the
district where he commits his ravages, and
public prayers are offered up on the occasion.
The Marquis de Marangis has sent out four
hundred peasants to destroy this fierce beast;
but they have not been able to do it!"

Either the wild beast of the Gévaudan
must have been very cunning of fence as
well as swift of foot, or the four hundred
peasants not over-courageous, to be unable
to kill or capture him; but so the fact
remained for several months after the first
alarm was excited.  "The wild beast,"
says a letter from Mende, dated December
the twenty-first, seventeen hundred and sixty-
four, "which hath ravaged several provinces,
has been for some time in ours.  He was seen
a few days ago near St. Flour, ten leagues
from hence, and he is now in our neighbourhood.
The day before yesterday he devoured
a little girl who looked after cattle.  A
detachment of dragoons has been out six weeks
after him (!). The province has offered a
thousand crowns to any person who will kill
him."  Again, on the eighth of February, in
the same year, we read the following statement
from Montpellier.  "On the twelfth
ultimo the wild beast attacked seven children,
five boys and two girls, none of whom
exceeded eleven years of age.  The beast flew
at one of the boys: but the three eldest of
them" (bolder it would seem than the bold
dragoons) "by beating him with stakes, the
ends of which were iron, obliged him to
retire, after having bitten off a part of the
boy's cheek, which he ate before them.  He
then seized another of the children; but they
pursued him into a marsh which was close by,
where he sunk in up to his belly.  By
continually beating him, they rescued their
companion; who, though he was under his paw
for some time, received only a wound in his
arm, and a scratch in the face.  A man at
last coming up, the creature was put to
light.  He afterwards devoured a boy at
Mazel, and, on the twenty-first, flew on a
girl, who, however, escaped with some
dangerous wounds.  The next day he attacked a
woman, and bit off her head (!)  Captain
Duhamel, of the dragoons, is in pursuit of
him, and has caused several of his men
to dress themselves in women's apparel,
and to accompany the children that keep
cattle."

The courage exhibited by the boys in the
preceding account, did not pass unrewarded;