SUBJECT CONTINUED. 65 



We have no particulars to relate respecting the 

 Woverine, of North America (Galo wolverine), the 

 Grisons and Faira (G. vittalus and G. barbatus}. 

 The first is conjectured, by the editors of CUVIER'S 

 Animal Kingdom, to be no other than an American 

 variety of the common Glutton. The second, and 

 third, common to all the warmer regions of the new 

 world, are generally rapacious, and diffuse a musky 

 odour. Their feet are slightly flattened, and it 

 seems that they have been generally mistaken for 

 otters. But modern naturalists have corrected this 

 opinion, and the vast rivers of America may lay 

 claim to several members of the otter tribe, as pecu- 

 liarly her own. Travellers may see them basking 

 in the sun, on the banks of the Orinoco, where 

 they appear somewhat larger than the common otter, 

 brown, or fawn-coloured, with a white or yellow 

 neck. They may further trace them along the shores 

 of the great river of the Amazons, shaded with 

 primeval forests, and beside the 



. . . sea-like Plata, to whose dread expanse, 

 Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course, 

 Our floods are rills. 



To them they may recall the rude scenes and incle- 

 ment climates in which the European otter is found. 

 He who has trod the thresholds of the western world, 

 can alone appreciate the vividness of such emotions. 

 u From the first time we landed," says one of the editors 

 of CUVIER'S Animal Kingdom, " on the shores of the 

 Southern Atlantic, we were never wearied with 

 admiring the varied forms of animated nature, which 

 as we advanced towards the south, presented new 



p 



