Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/654

620 J E R J E R limbs in walking, while the front pair are also employed by many species as hands for the conveyance of food to the mouth. The jerboas, of which there are three genera and twenty-two species known, occur chiefly throughout northern and central Africa, south-eastern Europe, and central and southern Asia, while one genus (Pedetes) is confined to South Africa and another (Jaculus) to North America. Of the third genus (Dipus) there are twenty known species, a typical example of which is the Egyptian jerboa (Dipus tegyptius). The length of its body is 8 inches, and of its tail, which is long, cylindrical, and covered with short hair, terminated by a tuft, 10 inches. Its front limbs are pentadactylous, and only 1 inch in length, the hind pair three-toed and six times as long. When about to spring, it raises its body by means of the hinder extremities, and supports itself at the same time upon its tail, while the fore feet are so closely pressed to the breast as to be scarcely visible. Hence probably the name Dipus, or two-footed. It then leaps into the air and alights upon its four feet, but instantaneously erecting itself, it makes another spring, and so on in such rapid succession as to appear as if rather flying than running. It is a gregarious animal, living in considerable colonies in burrows, which it excavates with its nails and teeth in the sandy soil of Egypt and Arabia. In these it remains during great part of the day, emerging at night in search of the herbs on which it feeds. It is exceedingly shy, and this, together with its extraordinary agility, renders it difficult to capture. The Arabs, however, succeed, it is said, in this by closing up all the exits from the burrows with a single exception, by which therefore they are forced to come, and over which a net is placed for their capture. When confined, they will gnaw through the hardest wood in order to make their escape. The Indian jerboa (Dipus indicus) is also a nocturnal burrowing animal, feeding chiefly on grain, which it stores up in underground repositories, closing these when full, and only drawing upon them when the supply of food above ground is exhausted. The natives in some parts of India are in the habit of searching for and robbing those granaries. The South African form, known as the spring haas or jumping hare of the colonists (Pedetes capensis), is the largest member of the family, measuring about a foot in length, exclusive of the tail, which is somewhat longer, and is bushy throughout. Its molar teeth are rootless, while its toes, which are three in number on each hind foot, are armed with long hoof-like nails. It is a powerful animal, nearly as large as a hare, and progresses when pursued by a series of leaps, each usually from 20 to 30 feet in length. Those jumping hares are found abundantly in the rocky plateaus of South Africa, where colonies of them form extensive burrowings some what similar to the rabbit warrens of Britain. Like other jerboas it is chiefly nocturnal, and occasionally it does considerable injury to the grain crops on which it feeds. Of the American genus (Jaculus} there is only a single species the Labrador jumping mouse (Jaculus hudsonius). It occurs over a wide area of North America, extending from Missouri northward to Labrador, and from the Atlantic westward to the Pacific coast. It resembles the spring haas, and differs from all other jerboas in having the metatarsal bones separated, and also in having its feet five- toed. It is a small creature, measuring about 5 inches in length, exclusive of the much longer and very rat-like tail, and lives chiefly in the neighbourhood of woods and shrubby places, where it conceals itself by day but roams in com panies at night. Its agility is extraordinary ; one kept in confinement by General Davies took, he says, " progressive loaps of from 3 to 4 and sometimes of 5 yards"; while Audubon considered it as probably the most agile of all wild animals. On the approach of winter the American jumping mouse retires into its burrow, and there encloses itself within a hollow ball of mud, in which it passes the cold season in a state of complete torpidity. The North American Indians neither eat its flesh nor make any use of its skin. JERDAN, WILLIAM (1782-1869), journalist, was born April 16, 1782, at Kelso, Scotland. After leaving the parochial school of his native town, his erratic youth be tween the years 1799 and 1806 was spent in the successive spheres of a country lawyer s office, a London West India merchant s counting-house, an Edinburgh solicitor s chambers, and the position of surgeon s mate on board H.M. guardship " Gladiator " in Portsmouth harbour, under his uncle, who was surgeon. In 1806 the insertion of some verses of his in a Portsmouth paper determined Jerdan s choice of literature as a profession ; and, proceeding to London, he found employment as a newspaper reporter. By 1812 he had become editor of The Sun, a semi-official Tory paper ; but a quarrel with the chief proprietor brought that engagement to a close in 1817. He passed next to the editor s chair of The Literary Gazette, which he con ducted with success for thirty-four years. Jerdan s position as editor introduced him into high social and literary circles ; and it is not easy to account for the deference lie met with, unless one is content to accept him at his own somewhat self-satisfied estimate, as contained in his Autobiography (4 vols., 1852-3), for which, however, there is no other warrant. An account of his acquaintance, among whom Canning was a special intimate, is to be found in his Men I have Knoivn (1866). When Jerdan retired in 1850 from the editorship of the Literary Gazette, his pecuniary affairs, either through misfortune or imprudence, were far from satisfactory. A testimonial of over 900 was subscribed by his friends; and in 1852 a Government pension of 100 guineas was conferred on him by Lord Aberdeen. Among other works, including trans lations from the French, Jerdan contributed to Fisher s National Portrait Gallery of Illustrious and Eminent Personages of the th Century. He died July 11, 1869. JEREMIAH. 1. Life. The narrative portions of the Book of Jeremiah are singularly full and precise, and even apart from these the subjective, lyric tone of the prophet s mind enables us to form a more distinct idea of his character than we have of any other prophetic writer. He was the son of a priest named Hilkiah, and it has been held by many both in ancient and in modern times that this Hilkiah was the celebrated high priest of that name, who "found the book of the law (Torah) in the house of Jehovah" (2 Kings xxii. 8). This conjecture, indeed, is not a very probable one, for Hilkiah the high priest was of the house of Eleazar (1 Chroii. ii. 13), and Anathoth, where Jeremiah s family lived, was occupied by priests of the line of Ithamar (1 Kings ii. 26). It is certain, how ever, that the prophet was treated by priests and officials with a consideration which seems to argue that he had high connexions. Jeremiah was still young when he was called to the prophetic career (i. 6) ; the year is stated by himself (i. 2, xxv. 3) to have been the 13th of Josiah (629 or 627 B.C.). This was before the memorable discovery " of the Torah, but the year immediately following that in which Josiah " began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the images of Asherah " (2 Chron. xxxiv. 3). As yet, it appeared as if Judah was enjoying the peace promised to faithful worshippers of Jehovah ; but the punishment of the sins of Manasseh was not to be long delayed. The battle of Megiddo (609 B.C.), which cost Josiah his life, and that of Carchemish (605 B.C.), which determined the Babylonian predominance to the west of the Euphrates, were the heralds of a fatal turn in the fortunes of the kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah (the