88 ANIMALS OF THE 



were it not for their furs, which are finer, more 

 glossy and soft, than those of any other quad- 

 ruped. Their dispositions are fierce and un- 

 tameable ; their scent generally offensive ; and 

 their figure disproportioned and unpleasing. The 

 knowledge of one or two of them would, there- 

 fore, have sufficed curiosity ; and the rest would 

 probably have been confounded together, under 

 one common name, as things useless and unin- 

 teresting, had not their skins been coveted by 

 the vain, and considered as capable of adding to 

 human magnificence or beauty. 



Of all these, however, the skin of the sable is 

 the most coveted, and held in the highest esteem. 

 It is of a brownish-black, and the darker it is, it 

 becomes the more valuable. A single skin, 

 though not above four inches broad, is often 

 valued at ten or fifteen pounds ; * the fur differ- 

 ing from others in this, that it has no grain ; so 

 that, rub it which way you will, it is equally 

 smooth and unresisting. Nevertheless, though 

 this little animal's robe was so much coveted by 

 the great, its history till of late was but very little 

 known j and we are obliged to M. Jonelin for the 

 first accurate description of its form and nature, t 

 From him we learn that the sable resembles the 

 martin in form and size, and the weasel in the 

 number of its teeth ; for it is to be observed, that 

 whereas the martin has thirty-eight teeth, the 

 weasel has but thirty-four ; in this respect, there- 

 fore, the sable seems to make the shade between 



* Rcgnard. f Buflbn, vol. xxvii. p. 113. 



