THE FARMER AT HOME. 457 



estimation with the inhabitants for the production of wax candles, for 

 which purpose it answers equally well with beeswax, or preferable, 

 as it is harder, and more lasting in burning. 



WEASEL. This animal, though little seen in the environs of 

 towns, is an animal very well known in most parts of the country ; 

 it varies in no great degree from the stoat, either in shape, make, or 

 propensity. Its favorite alimentary enjoyment seems to be the de- 

 struction of eggs by suction ; although it pursues and destroys poultry 

 and game with equal avidity. By some instinctive impulse of scent 

 or sagacity, the weasel is enabled to follow a hare, which it pursues 

 with great enthusiasm ; and whenever the hare unsuspectingly squats, 

 if this inveterate enemy happen to get up, it immediately makes a 

 spring, seizes the hare near the poll, and never quits its hold till the 

 animal (running in a state of distraction, and with the most piteous 

 shrieks) at length dies. The weasel may justly rank in the list of 

 venomous animals, for its bite is, among quadrupeds, almost univer- 

 sally fatal ; a hare or rabbit bitten by the weasel is seldom known to 

 recover. 



In its pursuits, it has several points in its favor ; its activity and 

 the peculiar formation of its claws, enable it to scale walls with so 

 much ease, that no spot is secure from its depredations. For its 

 luxurious repasts, however, upon eggs and young poultry, it makes 

 some amends to the farmer by its inveteracy to rats and mice ; having 

 something of the ferret in its nature, it is to these an implacable 

 enemy, and pursues them with mortal hatred. Of young pigeons it is 

 likewise a destructive depredator ; and when it has young is more 

 bold and indefatigable in its researches. In the dusk of the evening 

 and by moonlight, it may frequently be seen stealing from its lurking 

 place, near the farm house, taking the barns, stables, pigsties, and 

 poultry house in search of prey ; which, when it has killed, if not too 

 large, it drags to its place of retreat. In the summer it will venture, 

 farther from its haunts, and may be often traced by the side of rivulets 

 and near mills, in both places in quest of rats. 



"WEATHER. Weather denotes the state of the atmosphere, with 

 regard to heat and cold, wind, rain, and other meteors. The phe- 

 nomena of the weather must have at all times attracted much of the 

 attention of mankind ; because their subsistence and their comfort, in a 

 great measure, depended upon them. It was not till the seventeenth 

 century, however, that any considerable progress was made in investi- 

 gating the laws of meteorology. How desirous soever the ancients 

 might have been, to acquire an accurate knowledge of this science, 

 their want of proper instruments entirely precluded them from culti- 

 vating it. By the discovery of the barometer and thermometer, in the 

 last century, and the invention of accurate electrometers and hygrome- 

 ters, in the present, this defect is now pretty well supplied ; and 

 philosophers are enabled to make meteorological observations with 

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