THE FARMER AT HOME. 311 



eluding the tail, the length of which is eighteen inches. The color 

 of the whole hody, except the chin and throat, which are dusky white, 

 is a glossy brown. The fur throughout is dense and fine. This otter 

 inhabits South, as well as various parts of North America, along the 

 fresh water streams and lakes, as far north as to the Coppermine river. 

 In the Southern, Middle, and Eastern States of the Union, they are 

 comparatively scarce, but in the Western States they are in many 

 places still found in considerable numbers. On the tributaries of the 

 Missouri, they are very common ; but it is in the Hudson's Bay pos- 

 sessions that these animals are obtained in the greatest abundance, 

 and supply the traders with the largest number of their valuable 

 skins. Seventeen thousand and three hundred otter skins have been 

 sent to England in one year, by the Hudson's Bay Company. 



Nature appears to have intended the otter for one among her effi- 

 cient checks upon the increase of the finny tribes, and every peculiarity 

 in its conformation, seems to have this great object in view. The 

 length of body, short and flat head, abbreviated ears, dense and close 

 fur, flattened tail, and disproportionately short legs, with webbed feet, 

 all conspire to facilitate the otter's movements through the water. In 

 the crystal depths of the river, few fish can elude this swiftly moving 

 and destructive animal, which unites to the qualities enabling him to 

 swim with fish-like celerity and ease, the peculiar sagaciousness of a 

 class of beings far superior in the intellectual scale to the proper 

 tenants of the flood. In vain does the pike scud before his pursuer, 

 and spring into the air in eagerness to escape ; or the trout part with 

 the velocity of thought from shelter; in vain does the strong and 

 supple eel seek the protection of the shelving bank or the tangled 

 ooze in the bed of the stream ; the otter supplies by perseverance what 

 may be wanting in swiftness, and by cunning where he is deficient in 

 strength, and his affrighted victims, though they may for a short time 

 delay, cannot avoid their fate. When once his prey is seized, a single 

 effort of his powerful jaws is sufficient to render its struggles unavail- 

 ing ; one crush with his teeth breaks the spine of the fish behind the 

 dorsal fin, and deprives it of the ability to direct its motions, even if 

 it still retain the least power to move. 



OUNCE. A little weight, the sixteenth part of a pound avoirdu- 

 poise, and the twelfth part of a pound troy : the ounce avoirdupoise is 

 divided into eight drams, and the ounce troy into twenty pennyweights. 

 The avoirdupoise ounce is less than the troy ounce, but the avoirdu- 

 poise pound is greater than the troy pound. One hundred and seventy- 

 five troy ounces are equal to one hundred and ninety-two avoirdupose 

 ounces : but one hundred and forty-four pounds Avoirdupose are equal 

 to one hundred and seventy-five pounds troy. Therefore one pound 

 avoirdupoise, is equal to one pound, two ounces, eleven pennyweights, 

 sixteen grains troy. 



OXYGEN. Oxygen is one of the most important agents in na- 



