296 HISTORY OF 



We are so nearly connected is so utterly un- 

 known, how little must we know of many that 

 are more remote and unserviceable. Yet natu- 

 ralists proceed in the same train, enlarging their 

 catalogues and their names, without endeavour- 

 ing to find out the nature, and fix the precise 

 history of those with which we are very partially 

 acquainted. It is the spirit of the scholars of the 

 present age to be fonder of increasing the bulk 

 of our knowledge than its utility, of extending 

 their conquests than of improving their empire. 



The musk which comes to Europe is brought 

 over in small bags, about the size of a pigeon's 

 egg, which, when cut open, appear to contain a 

 kind of dusky reddish substance, like coagulated 

 blood, and which in large quantities has a very 



brown ; the lower part of the neck and throat is white ; the body and limbs 

 are reddish-brown ; the hind-legs are longer than the fore. This animal 

 inhabits Guiana and Brasil, and is exceedingly timid, active, and swift. 

 Numbers are frequently seen swimming the rivers, and at that time are easily 

 taken : The Indians hunt them, and their flesh is esteemed very delicate. 

 The French of Guiana call them biches or does, because, notwithstanding 

 their likeness to deer, both sexes are without horns. 



The Indicus, or Indian Musk, has short hair of a tawny colour on the 

 upper, and whitish on the under parts of the body ; the tail is short, and the 

 feet have spurious hoofs. It inhabits India, and is much of the same size 

 with the Thibet musk, but the tail is longer and more perceptible, the legs are 

 very slender, and the head resembles that of a horse, with erect oblong ears. 



The Meminna, or Ceylon Chevrotin, is in length seventeen inches from the 

 nose to the rump, and of a cinereous olive colour ; the throat, breast, and 

 belly, are white ; the sides and haunches spotted, and barred transversely 

 with white ; the ears are large and open ; the tail is very short, and the feet 

 have no spurious hoofs. It inhabits Ceylon and Java. 



The Javanicus, or Javan Musk, is of a ferruginous colour on the upper 

 parts of the body, and white all along the under ; the tail is long and hairy, 

 white below and at the tip; its legs are similar to those of the pigmy musk, 

 and furnished with very small spurious hoof's. This and the Meminna seem 

 only varieties of the Pigmy Musk. Vide p. -'98. ] 



