530 HISTORY OP 



CHAP. XII. 



THE RACOON. 



The Racoon, wliicli some authors have called the Jamaica rat, 

 is about the size of a small badger ; its body is short and bulky , 

 its fur is fine, long, and thick, blackish at the surface, and gray to- 

 wards the bottom ; the nose is rather shorter and more pointed 

 than that of the fox ; the eyes large and yellow ; the teeth re- 

 sembling those of a dog: the tail thick, but tapering towards a 

 point regularly marked with rings of black, and at least as long 

 as the body ; the fore-feet are much shorter than the hinder, 

 both armed with five sharp claws, with which, and his teeth, the 

 animal makes a vigorous resistance. Like the squirrel, it makes 

 use of its paws to hold its food while eating, but it differs from 

 the monkey kind, which uses but one hand on those occasions, 

 whereas the racoon and the squirrel use both ; as wanting the 

 thumb, their paws singly are unfit for grasping or holding. 

 Though this animal be short and bulky, it is however very ac- 

 tive ; its pointed claws enable it to climb trees with great facility ; 

 it runs on the trunk with the same swiftness that it moves upon 

 the plain, and spoits among the most extreme branches with 

 great agility, security, and ease ; it moves forward chiefly by 

 bounding, and though it proceeds in an oblique direction, it has 

 speed enough most frequently to escape its pursuers. 



This animal is a native of the southern parts of America, nor 

 have any travellers mentioned its being found in the ancient con- 

 tinent. Bnt in the climates of which it is a native, it is found 

 in noxious abundance, particularly in Jamaica, where it keeps in 

 the mountains, and where it often descends to feed upon the 

 ))laiitations of sugar-cane. The planters of these climates con- 

 sider these animals as one of their greatest miseries ; they have 

 contrived various methods of destroying them, yet still they pro- 

 pagate in such numbers that neither traps nor fire-arms can set 

 them free ; so that a swarm of these famished creatures are found 



every thing that rimld be presontod to it, wlivther vegetables, fish, or meat. 

 Its favourite attitude was sitting ou its ruinp like a dog ; and it nevei 

 exerted its voice vmless it was either fatigued or irritated 



