OF NORTH CAROLINA. 201 



night we had a mine to sleep on the banks (the 

 weather being fair) and wrapt up the geese which 

 we had killed and not eaten, very carefully, in the 

 sail of a canoe, and folded it several doubles, and 

 for their better security, laid them all night under 

 my head. In the morning when I waked, a minx 

 had eaten through every fold of the canoe sail, 

 and through one of the geese, most part of which 

 was gone. These are likewise found high up in 

 the rivers, in whose sides they live, which is known 

 by the abundance of fresh water muscle shells 

 (such as you have in England) that lie at the 

 mouth of their holes. This is an enemy to the 

 tortois, whose holes in the sand, where they hide 

 their eggs, the minx finds out, and scratches up 

 and eats. The raccoons and crows do the same. 

 The minx may be made domestic ; and were it 

 not for his paying a visit now and then to the 

 poultry, they are the greatest destroyers of rats 

 and mice that are in the world. Their skins, if 

 good of that kind, are valuable, provided they are 

 killed in season. 



The water rat is found here the same as in En- 

 gland. The water snakes are often found to have 

 of these rats in their bellies. 



That which the people of Carolina call a hare, 

 is nothing but a hedge coney. They never bo- 

 rough in the ground, but much frequent marshes 

 and meadow land. They hide their young in 

 some place secure from the discovery of the buck, 

 as the European rabbets do, and are of the same 



