ANIMALS. ;>1,') 



the dormouse ; this is its sleeping- during the winter. Tlie niar- 

 mout, though a native of the highest mountains, and where the 

 snow is never wholly melted, nevertheless seems to feel the in- 

 fluence of the cold more than any other, and in a manner has all 

 its faculties chilled up in winter. This extraordinary suspension 

 of life and motion for more than half the year, deserves our won- 

 der, and excites our attention to consider the manner of such 

 temporary death, and the subsequent revival. But first to de- 

 scribe, before we attempt to discuss. 



The marmout, usually at the end of September, or the begin- 

 ning of October, prepares to fit up its habitation for the winter, 

 from which it is never seen to issue till about the beginning or the 

 middle of April. This animal's little retreat is made with great 

 precaution, and fitted up with art. It is a hole on the side of a 

 mountain, extremely deep, with a spacious apartment at the 

 bottom, which is rather longer than it is broad. In this several 

 marmouts can reside at the same time, without crowding each 

 other, or injuring the air they breatlie. The feet and claws of 

 this animal seem made for digging ; and, in fact, they burrow 

 into the ground with amazing facility, scraping up the earth like 

 a rabbit, and throwing back what they have thus loosened be- 

 hind them. But the form of their hole, is still more wonderful ; 

 it resembles the letter Y ; the two branches being two openings, 

 which conduct into one channel, w'hich terminates in their gene- 

 ral apartment that lies at the bottom. As the hole is made on the 

 declivity of a mountain, there is no part of it on a level but the apart- 

 ment at the end. One of the branches or openings issues out 

 sloping downwards ; and this serves as a kind of sink or drain to 

 the whole family, where they make their excrements, and where 

 the moisture of the place is drawn away. The other branch, on 

 the contrary, slopes upwards, and this serves as their door, upon 

 which to go out and in. The apartment at the end is very warmly 

 stuccoed round with moss and hay, of both which they make an am- 

 ple provision during the summer. As this is a work of great la- 

 bour, so it is undertaken in common ; some cut the finest grass, 

 others gather it, and others take their turns to drag it into their 

 hole. Upon this occasion, as we are told, one of them lies on 

 its back, permits the hay to be heaped upon its belly, keeps its 

 paws upright to make greater room ; and in this manner, lying 

 still upon its back, it is dragged by the tail, hay and all, to their 



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