Sku7lks 143 



grouse for supper. Suddenly something in the 

 long grass catches my eye. Praise the gods ! 

 Promptitude in killing has saved me ! and I 

 continue my prowl without being reduced to a 

 condition which would prevent my rejoining my 

 companions except in a state of well-washed nature. 

 For that was a black and white mephitis with his 

 head slewed round to take good aim, and his brush 

 of a tail whisking wickedly, and a mephitis is an 

 animal before which the boldest man may retreat 

 with undiminished honour — as a Yankee would 

 put it. If he does for you " you must get up and 

 get." The horror of having a skunk prowling and 

 skylarking about in one's log hut, when one knows 

 that if that dog, now growling and " wuffing " in 

 his dreams, does but wake up, the said hut will be 

 utterly uninhabitable for an indefinite period, is 

 simply not to be told. I have heard the scent 

 compared to many things, but, thank Heaven, I 

 have never met with the single thing with which 

 to compare it. Five -and -twenty thousand pole- 

 cats with their hind legs in traps, concentrated 

 down to half a pint and mixed with the strongest 

 ones carefully putrified, with just a dash of recently 

 made kakodyle, is a receipt which — if made up 

 from fresh materials by Mr. Rimmel — might give 

 some slight idea of the savour. Like most things 

 that are not particularly wanted, his supply largely 

 exceeds his demand. He swarms in the long grass 

 of the prairies, and under the slab-built houses of the 



