M Y G A L E. 



301 



all other countries in the north of Europe. From the 

 flatness of the surface and the nature of the soil for 

 flat surfaces which have been several times flooded 

 have their pores so shut up by the deposit of the flood 

 that they become retentive in time, whatever.the sub- 

 stratum is. Russia is more flooded than any other 

 country of the north of Europe ; for the other 

 northern countries have diversified surfaces, from 

 which the water runs off 1 . Besides this the winter- 

 fall upon Russia is chiefly snow, not rain. This 

 snow keeps the ground warm as compared with 

 the latitude ; and the thaw at the return of the season 

 is rapid, and the water remains on the surface at many 

 places, and where it remains it deposits a new quan- 

 tity of rich soil. This soil, when the water subsides 

 from it, is highly favourable to the production of 

 worms and ground insects ; and consequently Russia 

 becomes, more than any other country, the peculiar 

 pasture of an aquatic feeder upon those worms and 

 other ground animals ; and we could name no other 

 region of equal extent on the eastern continent, or 

 indeed anywhere on the surface of the earth, so well 

 adapted for such an animal. 



The musk rats, accordingly, choose the margins of 

 such places, where they dig themselves burrows, having 

 the entrance under water, but gradually worked up 

 under ground until they ultimately reach such an ele- 

 vation as places them above the reach of the highest 

 fioodings ; for though these floodings, while they last, 

 extend over a considerable breadth of surface, they 

 are never of great depth, in consequence of this very 

 fact of the surface allowing them to run into breadth. 

 These burrows are sometimes worked to the extent 

 of seven or eight yards, including all their windings ; 

 but as they are merely lurking-places, and not feeding- 

 grounds like those in which the moles work, heaps of 

 earth are not cast up upon the surface. It is under- 

 stood that, except in the breeding season, the animals 

 dwell singly in their subterranean abodes ; and during 

 that season they are monogamists, or live in single 

 pairs. They do not hybernate in the winter ; be- 

 cause, though the land in cold climates is barren at 

 those seasons, the waters are fertile to such animals 

 as can reach the bottom, in consequence of the great 

 numbers of larvas which they contain : many of the 

 insect tribes, which are exceedingly numerous in 

 those northern latitudes during the summer, being 

 confined to the waters in winter as the only places of 

 safety. There is therefore no necessity for hyberna- 

 tion on the part of the musk rats, which can subsist 

 on those larvae, any more than there is on the part of 

 the beavers, which at the same season live upon dry 

 sticks. Still there is some occasional inconvenience ; 

 for the surface over the burrow, and the surface of the 

 water, sometimes get both so completely frozen over 

 as to be air-tight ; and then the animals are in danger 

 of suffocation. K there are any cracks or fissures in 

 the ice they crowd to them, and eagerly thrust their 

 uoses upwards to the atmosphere ; but it is under- 

 stood that numbers of them perish every winter from 

 this cause. 



At ordinary times they are very peaceable and re- 

 tiring animals ; pursuing their own labours in the 

 waters, without disturbing any creature except those 

 small animals on which they feed. It has been al- 

 leged that they feed upon the succulent roots of 

 aquatic plants, as well as upon animal matter ; but 

 this mistake appears to have arisen from the con- 

 ounding of them with rats and other miscellane- 



ous feeding rodentia. The insectivorous division of 

 the carnassiers are as animal in their feeding as 

 the carnivorous ones, if, indeed, they are not more 

 so ; and as the pastures of these animals are at all 

 seasons well stored with animal matter, they have no 

 occasion to have recourse to vegetable food : and 

 Pallas, who examined great numbers of them, was 

 never able to detect the least vestige of vegetable 

 matter in their stomachs. 



These animals have got the epithet musk attached 

 to their names, not in consequence of their being 

 possessed of any specific apparatus for the secretion 

 of musk, but simply because of the very strong 

 musky smell possessed by all parts of their bodies. 

 This is so very powerful as to render their flesh quite 

 unpalatable ; and not only so, but even pike, and 

 other voracious fishes which feed upon them, as they 

 often do, acquire so rank a smell of musk as not to 

 be eatable. We shall now briefly notice the two 

 species. 



RUSSIAN MHSK RAT (M. Muscovitut). This spe- 

 cies is not very correctly called Russian, because it 

 is found also in Sweden ; but Russia is its head-quar- 

 ters ; and the part of Sweden in which it is most 

 abundant has been annexed to Russia since the par- 

 tition of Europe at the close of the last war. This 

 animal is about the size of the common hedgehog, 

 that is, between eight and nine inches long in the 

 body ; and the tail is between six and seven inches. 

 Its covering very much resembles that of the beaver, 

 consisting of long hairs of firm texture and exquisite 

 polish, mixed with close, soft, and delicate fur among 

 the roots which last forms an exceedingly warm cover- 

 ing ; and the two together are quite waterproof. The 

 colour on the upper part is brown, paler along the 

 middle of the back, and deepening on the flank ; and 

 the under part of the body is silvery white. The 

 skin is very firm, and the fur strong and tenacious, 

 though fine ; so that the skin of the animal is held 

 in much esteem by the furriers ; and, as the animal 

 is abundant, it is obtained in 'considerable quan- 

 tities. The tail is a singular organ. At the base it 

 is compressed laterally ; but after a short distance 

 it thickens and becomes cylindrical, beyond which it 

 is again compressed, and the compression increases, 

 while the volume diminishes towards the distal extre- 

 mity. The compressed parts have of course a very 

 free lateral motion, and but little in the vertical plane, 

 and the cylindrical part has less motion in any one 

 plane, but admits of nearly an equal extent in all. 

 Thus, in consequence of the three parts of which it 

 is made up, the tail of this animal is a very curious 

 working structure. The compressed part at the base 

 acts as a sort of hinge, upon which the whole tail can 

 be moved laterally ; while the compressed part nearer 

 the tip can produce lateral motions in any part of its 

 length, and more free and rapid ones toward the ex- 

 tremity, where it becomes thinner in proportion to its 

 breadth. The cylindrical part again admits of the 

 two flat parts being bent at an angle to each 

 other, and also of their being twisted into different 

 planes. In consequence of these compound motions, 

 the tail of the musk rat is one of the most extraor- 

 dinary mechanical instruments in the whole animal 

 kingdom ; and it is one well worthy of being studied 

 by every person who wishes thoroughly to under- 

 stand mechanical principles. 



Though there is a considerable resemblance be- 

 tween the countries in the east of European Russia, 



