CH. I,] The Ferret Family. 



heads with the body, till it becomes as 

 difficult to follow as a rat's hole in a soft 

 bank ; and, to begin with, I am going to talk 

 about ferrets, for without them rat-catching 

 won't pay. 



Where ferrets first came from I am not 

 sure, but somewhere I have read that they 

 were imported from Morocco, and that they 

 are not natives of Great Britain any more 

 than the ordinary rat is. If they were im- 

 ported, then that importer ranks in my mind 

 with, but before, Christopher Columbus and 

 all such travellers. Anyhow it is quite clear 

 that nowhere in Great Britain are there wild 

 ferrets, for they are as distinct from the 

 stoat, the mouse-hunter, the pole-cat, etc., as 

 I am from a Red Indian ; and yet all belong 

 to the same family, so much so that I have 

 known of a marriage taking place between 

 the ferret and pole-cat, the offspring of which 

 have again married ferrets and in their turn 



