34 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



Chat sauvage shown herewith evidently was calculated to 

 give the reading public of Paris the impression that the 

 raccoon was built somewhat on the lines of a horse. 



Two other fur-bearers, the opossum and the skunk, were 

 likewise described and their likenesses shown. The opossum 

 was termed a rat de Bois, and the skunk was aptly named a 

 Bete puante, and its well-known method of defense aptly 

 described. The beavers and the others were noted, but, 

 strange to say, not a word was mentioned as to the mink 

 nor the now justly celebrated muskrat. 



The works of M. Bossu, Capitaine dans les Troupes de la 

 Marine, whose entertaining series of letters were written 

 about 1760 and subsequently printed, describes a number 

 of the animals previously noted by du Pratz, but, like the 

 other writer, he failed to make any mention of either the 

 muskrat or the mink. 



While du Pratz is recognized as the first historian 

 visiting early Louisiana and setting to paper his early, 

 valuable but quaint impressions of its flora and fauna, 

 there was published in Paris in 1753 a history written by 

 an officer of the Compagnie des Indes who served for 25 

 years in Louisiana, that takes second place in interest, to 

 say the least. 



The writer was Butel Dumont de Montigny and his 

 work written in French, of course, has the impressive title : 

 "Memories Historiques sur La Louisiane; contenant ce qui 

 y est arrive de plus memorable depuis I'anne 1687 jusqu'a 

 present; avec V 'establissement de la Colonie Francoise dans 

 cetts Province de V Amerique Septentrionale sous la direc- 

 tion de la Compagnie des Indes; le climat, la nature & les 

 productions de ce pays; Vorigine & la Religion des qui 

 VHabitent; leurs Moeurs & les Coutumes, etc." It was pub- 

 lished in two volumes illustrated with maps and plates of 

 trees, and plans of the new city of New Orleans. 



It is in Chapter XIII, "Concerning Terrestrial Animals 

 in Louisiana," that we are interested and so that those who 

 have never had the opportunity of knowing how the early 

 historians of our fauna treated and described the strange 

 mammals found here two hundred years and more ago a 



