HUNTING THE MARMOT. f5 



Hunting the Marmot is neither dangerous nor laborious, noi 

 fatal to any one but to the poor animals that are the objects of it. 

 The marmots inhabit the high mountains, where in summer they 

 scoop out holes, which they line with hay, and retire to at the 

 beginning of autumn : here they grow torpid with the cold, and 

 remain in a sort of lethargy, till the warmth of the spring return 

 to quicken, their languid blood, and to recall them to life. When 

 it is supposed that they have retired to their winter abode, and 

 before the snow has covered the high pastures where their holes 

 are made, people go to unharbor them. They are found from 

 ten to twelve in the same hole, heaped upon one another, and 

 buried in the hay. Their sleep is so profound, that the hunter 

 often puts them into his bag, and carries them home without their 

 awaking. The flesh of the young is good, though it tastes of oil, 

 and smells somewhat of musk ; the fat is used in the cure of 

 rheumatisms and pains, being rubbed on the parts affected ; but 

 the skin is of little value, and is sold for no more than five or six 

 eols. Notwithstanding the little benefit they reap from it, the people 

 of Chamouni go in quest of this animal with* great eagerness, and 

 its numbers accordingly diminish very sensibly. 



SWISS BIOT WITH HIS MARMOT. 



