THE SKUNK. 377 
the legs, although its fur had been repeatedly washed. The odour of this substance is so 
penetrating that it taints everything that may be near the spot on which it has fallen, and 
renders them quite useless. Provisions rapidly become uneatable, and clothes are so 
saturated with the vapour that they will retain the smell for several weeks, even thouch 
they are repeatedly washed and dried. It is said that if a drop of the odorous fluid should 
fall wpon the eyes, it will deprive them of sight. Several Indians were seen by Mr. 
Gresham who had lost the use of their eyes from this cause. 
On one occasion, a coach full of passengers was passing along the road, when a Skunk 
ran across the path and tried to push its way through a fence. Not succeeding in so 
doing, it evidently seemed to think that the coach was the cause of its failure, and ceasing 
its attempt to escape, deliberately sent a shower of its vile eftluence among the passengers. 
Secure in its means of defence, the Skunk is remarkably quiet and gentle of demeanour, 
and has more than once enticed an unwary passenger to approach it, and to attempt to 
seize so playful and attractive an animal. 
Mr. Audubon has recorded a curious adventure which befel him in his younger 
days. In one of his accustomed rambles, he suddenly came upon a curious little animal, 
SKUNK. - Mephitis vdrians. 
decorated with a parti-eoloured coat and bushy tail, and so apparently gentle in 
demeanour that he was irresistibly impelled to seek a nearer acquaintance. As he 
approached, the creature did not attempt to run away, but awaited his coming with 
perfect equanimity. Deceived by its gentle aspect, he eagerly ran towards the tempting 
prize, and grasped it by its bushy tail, which it had raised perpendicularly as if for the 
purpose of tempting him to make the assault. He soon repented of his temerity, for he 
had hardly seized the animal when he was overwhelmed with so horrible a substance, 
that his eyes, mouth, and nostrils were equally offended, and he was fain to fling away 
the treacherous foe. After this adventure he became very cautious with respect to pretty 
little playful animals with white backs and bushy tails. 
There is nothing in nature that is wholly evil, and even this terrible fluid is proved 
to be possessed of medicinal virtues, being sometimes used for the purpose of giving relief 
to asthmatic patients. There is rather a curious story respecting a clergyman who had 
been accustomed to use the scent-glands of the Skunk for this purpose, and to keep them 
in a closely-stopped bottle. It unfortunately happened, one Sunday, that, having been 
attacked with a fit of asthma, he took his bottle into the pulpit, and when his breathing 
became troublesome, he opened the bottle, and applied it to his nostrils. Whether he 
obtained the required relief or not is not recorded, but he was entirely spared the trouble 
