4 MEPHITIC BOUQUET. 



plentiful, pairs of them are seen occasionally 

 along the entire course of the boundary-line ; but 

 they are more plentiful southwards, through 

 Oregon and California. 



If on strolling up the stream, in the evening or 

 early morning, your eyes should fail, the nose at 

 once discovers that a skunk (Mephitis mephitica) 

 has been taking a constitutional, and distributing 



O i o 



a stench that, once inhaled, is not likely to be 

 forgotten. Mix the very worst mud from the 

 Thames on a summer-day, at low-water, with 

 Rimmel's shop, a gasworks, fellmonger's yard, 

 and knacker's boiling-furnace ; and I will venture 

 to assert that the odour produced, even if concen- 

 trated by the subtle power of chemistry, would 

 be a mild and pleasant perfume, when matched 

 against that of the skunk. 



It is lucky for the trade of the perfumers, that 

 their skill in essences, has not as yet attained to the 

 power of concocting a perfume, equal in per- 

 sistency to that secreted in the oil-glands of this 

 most disagreeable animal ; if such were the case, 

 the sale of one small phial would supply an in- 

 dividual for a lifetime. A handkerchief odorised 

 with scent so permanent, would defy the combined 

 powers of soap, soda, and washerwomen to re- 

 move the mephitic bouquet, as long as the fabric 

 retained its entirety. 



