The Fur Animals of Louisiana 8£> 



soft, warm carriage where they can sleep and suck at 

 their ease. If taken while carrying her young, she 

 suffers without giving sign of life ; if hung by the tail 

 or put over a fire, the tail wraps itself and the mother 

 dies with her young without anything being able to 

 open the skin of this pocket. 



"The meat of this animal has a very good taste, and 

 very much like that of the suckling pig, when it is 

 broiled. It is said that the fat is used to appease the 

 pains of rheumatism, sciatica, and other ailments." 



The opossum is prized, first of all, for its fur, but many 

 in Louisiana esteem the animal for its flesh, and among the 

 colored folk, 'possum and sweet 'taters is considered as 

 choice a dish today as in du Pratz's time. 



The pelage of the opossum, which finds a ready sale in 

 the fur marts, is distinctive for having two coats, an under- 

 fur that is short and white with its upper parts covered 

 with a frizzle of black and white hairs, the white one being 

 the longer, thus giving the animal a greyish appearance. 

 Its use in the fur trade for other things besides trimming 

 is rapidly gaining favor among women of fashion, and, 

 with the decline of other furs, it seems reasonable to expect 

 the value of the opossum raw pelts to rise. 



Approximately a quarter of a million opossum pelts 

 leave the state annually, making Louisiana the largest opos- 

 sum fur-producing state of the Union. 



The opossum is distributed generally throughout the 

 state, being found in numbers in every one of the sixty-four 

 parishes, including Orleans. It seems to center in greatest 

 numbers in Terrebonne, Lafourche, Calcasieu, Jefferson, 

 Natchitoches, Plaquemines, Beauregard, Assumption, Ra- 

 pides and Allen, and the parish quantity production seems 

 to be in the order named. 



