338 HisToav of 



rate two by two, and feed upon the variety of roots .and vegetables 

 that the season offers. They then become extremely fat, and 

 are much sought after, as well for their flesh as their skins, which 

 are very valuable. They then also acquire a very strong scent 

 of musk, so pleasing to an European, but which the savages of 

 Canada cannot abide. What we admire as a perfume, they con- 

 sider as a most abominable stench, and call one of their rivers, on 

 the banks of which this animal is seen to burrow in numbers, by 

 the name of the stinking river, as well as the rat itself, which is 

 denominated by them the stinkard. This is a strange diversity 

 among mankind ; and, pei'haps, may be ascribed to the different 

 kinds of food among different nations. Such as chiefly feed 

 upon rancid oils, and putrid flesh, will often mistake the nature 

 of scents •, and, having been long used to ill smells, will, by habit, 

 consider them as perfumes. Be this as it will, although these 

 nations of northern savages consider the musk rat as intolerably 

 foetid, they nevertheless regard it as very good eating- and, indeed, 

 in this they imitate the epicures of Eiu-ope very exactly, whose 

 taste seldom relishes a dish till the nose gives the strongest marks 

 of disapprobation. As to the rest, this animal a good deal re- 

 sembles the beaver in its habits and disposition ; but, as its in- 

 stincts are less powerful, and its economy less exact, I will reserve 

 for the description of that animal a part of what may be applica- 

 ble to this. 



THE CRICETUS. 



The Cricetus, or German Rat, which Mr Buffon calls the 

 hamster, greatly resembles the water-rat in its size, small eyes, 

 and the shortness of its tail. It differs in colour, being rather 

 browner, like the Norway rat, with the belly and legs of a dirty 

 yellow. But the marks by which it may be distinguished from 

 all others are two pouches, like those of a baboon, on each side 

 of its jaw, under the skin, into which it can cram a large quan- 

 tity of provision. These bags are oblong, and of the size, vi'Len 

 filled, of a large walnut. They open into the mouth, and fall back 

 along the neck to the shoulder. Into these the animal can thrust 

 the surplus of those fruits or grains it gathers in the fields, such 

 as wheat, peas, or acorns. When the immediate calls of hunger 

 are satisfied, it then falls to filling these j and thus loaded with 



