62 WINTER SUNSHINE 



and which is the chief source of his unpopularity, 

 while it affords good reasons against cultivating him 

 as a pet, and mars his attractiveness as game, is by 

 no means the greatest indignity that can be offered 

 to a nose. It is a rank, living smell, and has none 

 of the sickening qualities of disease or putrefaction. 

 Indeed, I think a good smeller will enjoy its most 

 refined intensity. It approaches the sublime, and 

 makes the nose tingle. It is tonic and bracing, and, 

 I can readily believe, has rare medicinal qualities. 

 I do not recommend its use as eyewater, though an 

 old farmer assures me it has undoubted virtues when 

 thus applied. Hearing, one night, a disturbance 

 among his hens, he rushed suddenly out to catch 

 the thief, when Sir Mephitis, taken by surprise, and 

 no doubt much annoyed at being interrupted, dis- 

 charged the vials of his wrath full in the farmer's 

 face, and with such admirable effect that, for a few 

 moments, he was completely blinded, and powerless 

 to revenge himself upon the rogue, wlio embraced 

 the opportunity to make good his escape ; but he 

 declared that afterwards his eyes felt as if purged 

 by fire, and his sight was much clearer. 



In March that brief summary of a bear, the rac- 

 coon, comes out of his den in the ledges, and leaves 

 his sharp digitigrade track upon the snow, — travel- 

 ing not unfrequently in pairs, — a lean, hungry 

 couple, bent on pillage and plunder. They have 

 an unenviable time of it, — feasting in the summer 

 and fall, hibernating in winter, and starving in 

 spring. In April I have found the young of the 



