300 THE MOUNTAIN. 



"sraelled him twenty miles at sea." He also seems to regard 

 him with considerable complacency, observing, "the flesh, 

 when carefully prepared, is very sweet. A person in my 

 neighborhood took nineteen from one burrow, and salted 

 them down for family use during the winter."* The Alle- 

 ghaniens in Pennsylvania do not seem to regard the pole- 

 cat as a very great dainty; at least it is not found on the 

 bills of fare of the hotels of that range. The skunk is 

 generally regarded as the essence of all that is disgusting 

 and abominable in nature, f 



The pole-cat is found all over the United States east of 

 Missouri Plains and north of Texas. 



RACCOON. 



(Family Ursidae.) 



PKOCYON lotor, (Storr.) or common raccoon. This animal 

 is found throughout the Apalachian range, in Pennsylvania. 

 It abounds on the Alleghany, frequenting water courses and 

 springs, hunting frogs, lizards, and fresh water shells. It is 

 peculiar and interesting^ in its habits, and seems to have 

 friendly feelings for man, enjoying much a visit to his grow- 

 ing corn-fields, and being easily domesticated. Its flesh is 

 esteemed a delicacy as an article of food in the wilder and 

 more primitive regions, but like many other delicacies it re- 

 quires a certain drill and conspiracy of circumstances to 

 develop an appreciation of its qualities. Like the god 

 Pan, the huntsman has a taste for the flesh of the woods, 



* New York Fauna, p. 30. 



f In the spiritual world there are men who assume the form of 

 the skunk. These men on earth were skunkish men, that is, the 

 loves or active principles within them were developed in the 

 skunkish sphere, or in acts the odor of which for intensity of mean- 

 ness, gave disgust forever to all manly men. "All that is deformed 

 and foul in nature is already in the hells whose loves it effigies, and 

 whose outward kingdom it is." 



% See note at end of catalogue of "Mammals." 



