THE WEASEL KIND. 129 



the tail, is a native of the cold parts of both the old and the new 

 continent: its fur is very valuable, being extremely thick and 

 soft. Great numbers of these skins are imported from Canada. 



The corsac fox is common in the deserts of Tartary beyond 

 the Yaick river. In summer its colour is a pale yellow, except 

 on the throat, which is white. In^winter it is grey, and the end 

 of its tail black. It is smaller than the common fox, and its hair 

 is soft and downy. 



It lives in holes in the ground, and is hunted by the Tar- 

 tars with falcons and greyhounds. Forty or fifty thousand of 

 these foxes are taken annually, and their skins sold to the Rus- 

 sians, at the rate of forty copecs, or about twenty pence each. 

 Great numbers of them are sent into Turkey. The natives use 

 their skins instead of money. 



Thus we have in this, as well as in some other animals, an 

 exhibition of its various uses, and a display of the multifarious 

 wisdom of the Creator, who has not ordained it solely as a de- 

 predator, nor confined its utility to the amusement of the human 

 species, but also rendered it highly serviceable to man as an arti- 

 cle of commerce, and conducive to the intercourse carried on 

 between nations. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

 THE WUASEIi KXNTD. 



......... " Beneath the shining waste 



The furry nations harbour ; tipt with jet, 

 Fair ermines, spotless as the snows they press ; 

 Sables of glossy black; and dark embrown'd, 

 Or beauteous freak'd with many a mingled hue, 

 Thousands besides, the costly pride of courts." THOMSON. 



The reflections on the wise and beneficent dispensations of 

 Providence, in accommodating the animal creation to the use of 

 the human species, with which the subject naturally led us to con- 

 clude the last chapter, induce us to continue the display of the 

 Divine wisdom and goodness, in giving a concise description of a 

 species of small, but exceedingly valuable animals, which are in 

 some countries of extraordinary importance, when considered in 

 a commercial point of view. These are principally the fine wea- 

 sel, the martin, the sable, and the ermine, which are all included 

 in the weasel kind, which we shall next describe. In the mean 

 time it will not be unpleasant to contemplate in one view, those 



