292 All Accojint of Gni'Jnval, [Sess. 



curious that these two monkeys should be found all over the 

 coiintry where dialects derived' from Sanscrit are spoken — no 

 other monkeys occurring there — and that they should be found 

 nowhere else. It looks as if identical causes sometimes 

 determined things apparently so distinct as the fauna of a 

 country and the language spoken by its inhabitants. 



Of Insectivora, the most common is the musk-rat, Sorex, sev- 

 eral species of which are common, and most useful in destroy- 

 ing noxious insects. They have, however, an abominable smell, 

 which is very offensive to Europeans. Of the Carnivora, the 

 black bear ( Ursus, tihdanus) is exceedingly common. It seldom 

 attacks man unprovoked, except in the case of a female with 

 cubs ; but when the natives try to drive a bear out of their 

 fields, it often shows fight, and iniiicts fearful injuries with 

 its claws, sometimes tearing off all the skin of a man's face. 

 I have often had patients in hospital, frightfully disfigured by 

 attacks from bears, and numbers of people are killed annually. 

 The white snow-bear {Ursus isabcllinus) is fouiad, but only in 

 the highest mountains. Allied to the bear, but much smaller, 

 is the long-tailed bear-squirrel, which Cuvier calls the most 

 beautiful of quadrupeds. Of the weasel tribe two are found 

 — Martes flavigula, a most inveterate destroyer of poultry, as 

 I more than once experienced, and a beautiful Mustela. Of 

 otters, Lutra monticola is common. I have sat watching it 

 hunting for fish, floating down one of the great rivers, swept 

 along by the current, and then returning up-stream by land. 

 Of the true Felines, the tiger is met with, but can hardly be 

 called common. Every now and then, however, an old tiger 

 or tigress, no longer able for the hard work of catching deer 

 and cattle in the plains, makes its way up to the hills in 

 summer, and takes to the easier occupation of killing the 

 village women, who are employed cutting grass on the hill- 

 sides. It does not so often attack men. The reason probably 

 is, that it is the custom for the Tillage women to go every day 

 to the hills, and there cut grass, and bring home a load of it 

 for their cattle, while the men are employed ploughing, or 

 working in the fields, near the village. Thus the women 

 wandering about the hillsides, often far from each other, fall 

 an easy prey to a tiger. The number of tigers is not, how- 

 ever, very great, and practically they are confined to South 



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