Some Account of the Water-Shrew. 



^19 



examine this curiosity, and to consider how so difficult a task 

 had been accomplished, it appeared to me to have been 

 grounded on a well-formed model of wood, very tightly covered, 

 in the first instance, by the skin of a pug-dog of corresponding 



53 



size, the long hair about the head, hunch, and belly being 

 added with consummate skill from the skin of a young bear, 

 while the horns and hoofs were formed out of the black horn 

 of the buffalo, all, however, so admirably put together, and 

 the tout ensemble so elegant, as to stamp the artist as the first 

 of his calling. 



I am Sir, &c. 

 August, 1828. V, 



Art. III. Some Account of the Water- Shrevo : a Mouse supposed 

 to have been lost for about a Century. By John F. M. Dovaston, 

 Esq. A.M. Oxon., of West-Felton, near Shrewsbury. 



" Thou need'st na startle 

 At me, thy poor earth-born companion. 

 And fellow-mortal." 



Burns. 



Sir, 



On a delicious evening, far in April, 1825, a little before 

 sunset, strolling in my orchard, beside a pool, and looking into 

 the clear water for insects I expected about that time to come 

 out, I was surprised by seeing what I momentarily imagined to 



S 2 



