362 



MI'SH I. 



Pyrenees; another larger -pccies ( .V. nuuchata), 

 \eiy plentiful in the Volga and other rivers anil 



Miuk-nt, or Desman (.Vyyale pyrinaiea). 



lake!) of the south of Russia, nearly iin.-il in si/e 

 to tlic coniiiioii hed^'eho;;. with tail aliout three- 

 fourths of the length of the body. The Russian 

 desman is blockish almve, whitish beneath ; it has 

 Ion;; silky hair, with a softer felt beneath, and its 

 fur is held in so'nc esteem. Desman skins, how- 

 ever, are chiefly valued on account of the musky 

 odour which they Ion-; exhale, and which is derived 

 from a fatty secretion produced hy small follicles 

 ninler tin- t.iil 'if the animal. The desman feeds 

 on leeches, aquatic larva-, <., searching for them 

 in the mud hy means of its flexible proboscis. It 

 seldom, if ever, voluntarily leaves the water, except 

 in the interior of its borrows, which are sometimes 

 20 feet long. (2) The name of Musk rat is also 

 a common name for an Indian species of Shrew 

 (Sorex innrimi.t), in size aliout equal to the common 

 brown rat, in form and colour much resembling the 

 common shrew of Britain, but remarkable for the 

 powerful musky odour of a secretion which pro- 

 ceeds from glands on its belly and Hanks. (3) The 

 name is al-o given to the Musquash (q.v.). 



Muslin, a fine cotton fabric somewhat resem- 

 bling (iauxe (q.v.) ill appearance, but it is woven 

 plain without any looping of the warp threads on 

 the weft. A piece of the finest muslin at one time 

 manufactured at Dacca in India, measuring 3 yards 

 in length by 1 in breadth, weighed only the fifth 

 part of an ounce, and cost 1 10 ; but none approach- 

 ing to this in fineness is made in India now. Very 

 fill" muslin hits been woven from yarn spun by 

 machinery at Manchester, but it wanted the 

 delicate softness of the I'uie-t Dacca. Printed 

 muslins are made in France and England for 

 female summer attire. In India some muslins 

 are woven with coloured patterns; others are em- 

 broidered with silk or Wiles' win^s ; others again 

 are printed with gold and silver leaf. Such names 

 ax 'woven air' and 'evening dew' are given in 

 that country to those of exquisitely fine texture. 



Musquash, also called Ml SK KAT, or Oxii.M'i:\ 

 [Fiber nbetkietu), a rodent quadruped, a native of 

 North America, from the Itio (irande to the 

 A relic regions. The genus to which it belongs 

 contain* only one other -pecies, /'. nllmi, from 

 Florida. They In-long to the family Muridn-. 

 The musquash is in shape nearly similar to the 

 brown rat; the head and liody are aliout 15 incho, 

 in length, the tail 10 inches. The whole |MH!V is 

 covered with a short, downy, dark brown fur, inter- 

 mixed with longer and coarser hairs. It i-- a very 

 aquatic animal, seldom wandering from the ri\ei-. 

 lakes, or mar-die* in which it makes its alx>de. It 



is chiefly a Vegetable feeder, but like other Muridll- 



will occasionally take' to animal food the mollusc 

 Unio in a favourite delicacy. The fur is in demand, 

 anil forms an article of commerce skins in lar^e 

 numbers U-ing still exported from America to 

 Britain and other European countries. The 



musquash burrows in the banks of stream- and 

 (Minds, the entrances of its buriows ln-ing always 

 underwater. In marshes the musquash builds a 

 kind of hut, collecting coarse gra.s-.i-s and mud, 

 and raising the fabric from -J to 4 feel aliove the 

 water. The flesh of the musquash, at those seasons 



. 



Musquash (filter zilxtJiicui). 



when it is fat, is in some request among the 

 American Indians, and is said to be not un- 

 palatable. 



Mussel, a name applied to several common 

 bivalves or Laiiiellihranch molluscs. ( 1 ) The 

 Common Sea mussel (Mi/fi/nx ir/iitm), very import- 

 ant for bait and not unfrequently used as toud, 

 is widelv distributed in crowded 'beds' between 

 high ami low water marks. It is usually sedentary 

 and firmly anchored by yellowish silken 'b\ssu.' 

 but it is also able to shift its quaiters and even to 

 climb by slowly extending the range of the byssal 

 thread exuded from the 'foot.' (8) The llor-e- 

 iniisse] i Mvdioliis tiiodfoln) is ne.-nly twice as i: 

 as the aliore, and lives a more active burrowing 

 lielow the low-water mark. It is ne\er used for 

 food, and is not available for bait. liolh lhe-e -ca 

 mussels are representative of large genera, and are 

 included in one family Mytilid.e. (8) Quite differ- 

 ent from tin- above are the fresh-water mil-- 

 riiiomda-. widely disiributed in lakes and rive:-, 

 where they plough their way slowly along the 

 Ixittom from one testing place to another. As good 

 representatives of the I'nioiiida', the Pond-mussel, 

 AIIOI/IIII ci/i/Hfd.tlie Painter's Mu-sel. I', ,,,,/,/', i-ti,n, 

 whose shells were once used for holding water- 

 colour paints, and the IVarl-miis-cl. Mnrt/-irititifi 

 iniii -iinriltj'i , -i ~cc Pi \ l:M. may be noted. For the 

 structure and general characters, see HIVAI.VI 1 



The common edible mussel abounds on the 

 Atlantic seaboard of the I'nited States, but is 

 used neither as food nor as bait. In England il i- 

 largely used its human food ; in Scot lam) it is not 

 so used, but enormous quantities -nc required for 

 bait, especially by haddock fishers. The chief 

 objection to mussels as food is that they arc 

 occasionally poisonous. MU--I-]- especially which 

 are unhealthy or dead are verv iipt to contain 

 dangerously lioisonotis waste pi. .duct- ; care should 

 accordingly } taken that those used for food 

 are thoroughly fresh. A French Commission 

 reported in ISS'.I .that the poison is due to the 

 presence in the mussel of a volatile alkaloid 

 developed under the influence of a particular 

 microbe, which is only found in mu-scl- Crowing 

 in stagnant and polluted water. Sewage fairly 

 free from the pollution of manufactories it* distinctly 



