330 THE ERMINE, OR STOAT. 



festly change color in the beginning of summer, the old long 

 hair falling off, and a shorter coat of hair appearing in its 

 room, generally of a darker color, and yet more glossy. 

 What obtains in our temperate climate, is seen to prevail still 

 more strongly in those regions where the winters are long 

 and severe, and the summers short and yet generally hot in 

 an extreme degree. The animal has strength enough during 

 that season to throw off a warm coat of fur, which would but 

 incommode it, and continues for two or three months in a 

 state somewhat resembling the ordinary quadrupeds of the 

 milder climates. At the approach of winter, however, the 

 cold increasing, the coat of hair seems to thicken in propor- 

 tion ; from being coarse and short, it lengthens and grows 

 finer, while multitudes of smaller hairs grow up between the 

 longer, thicken the coat, and give it all that warmth and soft- 

 ness which are so much valued in the furs of the northern 

 animals. 



It is no easy matter to account for this remarkable warmth 

 of the furs of northern quadrupeds, or how they come to be 

 furnished with such an abundant covering. It is easy 

 enough, indeed, to* say that nature fits them thus for the 

 climate ; and like an indulgent mother, when she exposes 

 them to the rigor of an intemperate winter, supplies them 

 with a covering against its inclemency. But this is only 

 flourishing : it is not easy to tell how nature comes to furnish 

 them in this manner. A few particulars on this subject are 

 all that we yet know. It is observable among quadrupeds, 

 as welt as even among the human species itself, that a thin 

 sparing diet is apt to produce hair; children that have been 

 ill fed, famished dogs and horses, are more hairy than others 

 whose food has been more plentiful. This may, therefore, be 

 one cause that the animals of the north, in winter, are more 

 hairy than those of the milder climates. At that season, the 

 whole country is covered with deep snow, and the provisions 

 which these creatures are able to procure can be but preca- 

 rious and scanty. Its becoming finer may also proceed from 

 the severity of the cold, that contracts the pores of the skin, 



