348 



ANIMALS OF 



or six miles on a stretch ; but the female keeps 

 close by some covert side, turns, crosses, and 

 winds among the bushes like a rabbit, and sel- 

 dom runs directly forward. In general, how- 

 ever, both male and female regulate their con- 

 duct according to the weather. In a moist 

 day they hold by the highways more than at 

 any other time, because the scent is then strong- 

 est upon the grass. If they come to the side 

 of a grove or spring, they forbear to enter ; but 

 squat down by the side thereof until the hounds 

 have overshot them ; and then, turning along 

 their former path, make to thoir old form, from 

 which they vainly hope for protection. 



Hares are divided, by the hunters, into 

 mountain and measled hares. The former are 

 more swift, vigorous, and have the flesh bet- 

 ter tasted ; the latter chiefly frequent the 

 marshes, when hunted keep among low 

 grounds, and their flesh is moist, white, and 

 flabby. When the male and female keep one 

 particular spot, they will not suffer any strange 

 hare to make its form in the same quarter, so 

 that it is usually said, that the more you hunt, 

 the more hares you shall have ; for, having 

 killed one hare, others come and take posses- 

 sion of its form. Many of these animals are 

 found to live in woods and thickets, but they 

 are naturally fonder of the open country, and 

 are constrained only by fear to take shelter in 

 places that afford them neither a warm sun 

 nor an agreeable pasture. They are, therefore, 

 usually seen stealing out of the edges of the 

 wood to taste the grass that grows shorter and 

 sweeter in the open fields than under the shade 

 of the trees; however, they seldom miss of being 

 pursued ; and every excursion is a new adven- 

 ture. They are shot at by poachers ; traced 

 by their footsteps in the snow ; caught in sprin- 

 ges ; dogs, birds, and cats, are all combined 

 against them; ants, snakes, and adders, drive 

 them from their forms, especially in summer ; 

 even fleas, from which most other animals are 

 free, persecute this poor creature ; and, so va- 

 rious are its enemies, that it is seldom permit- 

 ted to reach even that short term to which it 

 is limited by nature. 



The soil and climate have their influence 

 upon this animal as well as on most others. 

 In the countries bordering on the north pole, 

 they become white in winter, and are often seen 

 in great troops of four or five hundred, run- 

 along the banks of the river Irtish, or the 



mug 



Jenisca, and are white as the snow they tread 

 on. They are caught in traps for the sake of 

 their skins, which, on the spot, are sold for 

 less than seven shillings a hundred. Their 

 fur is well known to form a considerable ar- 

 ticle in the hat manufacture ; and we accord- 

 ingly import vast quantities of it from those 

 countries where the hare abounds in such plen- 

 ty. They are found also entirely black, but 

 these in much less quantities than the former ;' 

 and even some have been seen with horns, 

 though these but rarely. b 



The hares of the hot countries, particularly 

 in Italy, Spain, and Barbary, are smaller than 

 ours : those bred in the Milanese country are 

 said to be the best in Europe. There is scarce 

 a country where this animal is not to be found, 

 from the torrid zone to the neighbourhood of 

 the polar circle. The natives of Guinea knock 

 them on the head as they come down to the 

 sides of the rivers to drink. They also sur- 

 round the place where they are seen in num- 

 bers, and clattering a short stick, which every 

 man carries, against that which the person 

 next him carries, they diminish their circle 

 gradually, till the hares are cooped up in the 

 midst. They then altogether throw their sticks 

 in among them, and with such deadly force, 

 that they seldom fail of killing great numbers 

 at a time." 



The flesh of this animal has been esteemed 

 as a delicacy among some nations, and is held 

 in detestation by others. The Jews, the an- 

 cient Britons, and the Mahometans, all con- 

 sidered it as an unclean animal, and religious- 

 ly abstained from it. On the contrary, there 

 are scarce any other people, however barba- 

 rous at present, that do not consider it as the 

 most agreeable food. Fashion seems to pre- 

 side and govern all the senses ; what mankind 

 at one time consider as beautiful, fragrant, or 

 savoury, may at another time, or among other 

 nations, be regarded as deformed, disgustful, 

 or ill-tasted. That flesh which the ancient 

 Romans so much admired as to call it the food 

 of the wise, was, among the Jews and the 

 Druids, thought unfit to be eaten ; and even 

 the moderns, who, like the Romans, consider 

 the flesh of this animal as a delicacy, have 



a Klein. Disp. Quadrup. p. 52. b Johnston de 



Quadrup. L. ii. C. 2. c Dictionaire Raisonee Liever. 



d Hist. Gen. des Voyages, torn. iv. p. 171. 



