342 



ANIMALS OF 



so as to make it sweat, this also is a strong 

 perfume, and serves to adulterate or increase 

 what is otherwise obtained from it. In ge- 

 neral, it is sold in Holland for about fifty shil- 

 lings an ounce : although, like all other com- 

 modities, its value alters in proportion to the 

 demand. Civet must be chosen new, of a 

 good consistence, a whitish colour, and a 

 strong, disagreeable smell. There is still a 

 very considerable traffic carried on from Bus- 

 sorah, Calicut, and other places in India, 

 where the animal that produces it is bred ; 

 from the Levant also, from Guinea, and es- 

 pecially from Brasil, in South America, al- 

 though Mr. Buffbn is of opinion that the ani- 

 mal is a native only of the Old Continent, and 

 not to be found wild in the New. The best 

 civet, however, is furnished, as was observed, 

 by the Dutch, though not in such quantities 

 at present as some years past, when this per- 

 fume was more in fashion. Civet is a much 

 more grateful perfume than musk, to which it 

 has some resemblance; and was some years 

 ago used for the same purposes in medicine. 

 But, at present, it is quite discontinued in pre- 

 scription; and persons of taste or elegance 

 seem to proscribe it even from the toilet. Per- 

 fumes, like dress, have their vicissitudes; musk 

 was in peculiar repute, until displaced by ci- 

 vet; both gave ground, upon discovering the 

 manner of preparing ambergris; and even 

 this is now disused for the less powerful ve- 

 getable kinds of fragrance, spirits of lavender, 

 or otter of roses. 



As to the rest, the civet is said to be a wild 

 fierce animal; and, although sometimes tamed, 

 is never thoroughly familiar. Its teeth are 

 strong and cutting, although its claws be fee- 

 ble and inflexible. It is light and active, and 

 lives by prey, as the rest of its kind, pursuing 

 birds, and other small animals that it is able 

 to overcome. They are sometimes seen steal- 

 ing into the yards and outhouses, to seize upon 

 the poultry : their eyes shine in the night, and 

 it is very probable that they see better in the 

 dark than by day. When they fail of animal 

 food, they are found to subsist upon roots and 

 fruits, and very seldom drink; for which rea- 

 son they are never found near great waters. 

 They breed very fast in their native climates, 

 where the heat seems to conduce to their pro- 

 pagation ; but in our temperate latitudes, al- 



though they furnish their perfume in great 

 quantities, yet they are not found to multiply. 

 A proof that their perfume has no analogy 

 with their appetite lor generation. 



THE GLUTTON. 



I WILL add but one animal more to this nu- 

 merous class of the weasel kind ; namely, the 

 glutton; which, for several reasons, seems to 

 belong to this tribe, and this only. We have 

 hitherto had no precise description of this 

 quadruped; some resembling it to a badger, 

 some to a fox, and some to a hyrena. Lin- 

 naeus places it among the weasels, from the 

 similitude of its teeth; it should seem to me 

 to resemble this animal still more, from the 

 great length of its body, and the shortness of 

 its legs, from the softness of its fur, its dis- 

 agreeable scent, and its insatiable appetite 

 for animal food. Mr. Klein, who saw one of 

 them, which was brought alive from Siberia, 

 assures us, that it was about three feet long,* 

 and about a foot and a half high. If we com- 

 pare these dimensions with those of other ani- 

 mals, we shall find that they approach more 

 nearly to the class we are at present describ- 

 ing than any other; arid that the glutton may 

 very justly be conceived under the form of a 

 great, overgrown weasel. Its nose, its ears, 

 its teeth, and its long bushy tail, are entirely 

 similar; and as to what is said of its being 

 rather corpulent than slender, it is most pro- 

 bable that those who described it thus, saw 

 it after eating, at which time its belly, we are 

 assured, is most monstrously distended : how- 

 ever, suspending all certainty upon this sub- 

 ject, I will take leave rather to follow Liu- 

 ria3us than Buffbn, in describing this animal ; 

 and leave future experience to judge between 

 them. 



The glutton, which is so called from its vo- 

 racious appetite, is an animal found as well 

 in the north of Europe and Siberia, as in the 

 northern pnrts of America, where it has the 

 name of the carcajou. Amidst the variety of 

 descriptions which have been given of it, no 



a He says, it was an ell, eight inches long : I have, 

 therefore, given its length, as supposing it to bea Flemish 

 ell, which is twenty-seven inches. 



