4 MEPHITIC BOUQUET. 
plentiful, pairs of them are seen occasionally 
slong 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 
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. 
