516 THE PHILOSOPHY 



inftln-5t and experience, Nature furnlfhes them, during the 

 winter months, with a double portion of long hair, which 

 protects them from cold, and other afPaults of the weather. 



Of the quadrupeds that make or choofe habitations for 

 themfelves, fome dig holes in the earth, fome take refuge in 

 the cavities of decayed trees, and in the clefts of rocks, and 

 fome actually conflru^l cabins or houfes. But the artifices 

 they employ, the materials they ufe, and the fituations they 

 jelect, are fo various, and fo numerous, that our plan necef- 

 farily limits us to a few of the more curious examples. 



The Alpine marmot is a quadruped about lixteen inches 

 in length, and has a fhort tail. In figure, the marmots have 

 fome refemblance both to the rat and to the bear. When 

 tamed, they eat every thing prefented to them, as flefh, 

 bread, fruit, roots, pot-herbs, infecls, &c. They delight in 

 the regions of frofh and of fnow, and are only to be found 

 on the tops of the highefi: mountains. Thefe animals remain 

 in a torpid flate during winter. About the end of Septem* 

 ber or ;the beginning of October, they retire into their holes, 

 '^nd never come abroad again till the beginning of April. 

 Their retreats are formed with much art and precaution. 

 With ,thek feet and claws, which are admirably adapted to 

 the purpofc, they dig the earth with amazing quicknefs, and 

 throw it behind them. They do not make a fimple hole, or 

 a ftraight or winding tube, but a kind of gallery in the form 

 of a Y, each branch of which has an aperture, and both ter- 

 minate in a capacious apartment, where feveral of the ani- 

 mals lodge together. As the whole operation is performed 

 on the declivity of a mountain, this innermoft apartment is 

 alone horizontal. Both branches of the Y are inclined* 

 One of the branches defcends under the apartment, and 

 follows the declivity of the mountain. This branch is a 

 kind of aquedudl, and receives and carries off the excre- 

 ments of the animals ; and the other, which rifes above the 



