54-2 Hisroa"* of 



CHAP. XVI. 



THE JERBOA.* 



This animal as little resembles a quadruped, as that wliicb 

 has been described in a former chapter. If we should suppose 



* Sec the Note to page 339 of this volume for a further account of the 

 Jerboa. — ^An animal somewhat resembling the Jerboa, but which has not yet 

 been classified by naturalists, is the Chincki/lu. Notwithstanding the exten- 

 sive traffic carried on in the skins of tliis animal, little was correctly known 

 regarding it until the publication, in 1830, of " The Gardens and Men- 

 ageries of the Zoological Society delineated," from which volume we shall 

 take the liberty of extracting the following interesting account of this use- 

 ful creature, being the first which has appeared in the English language.— 

 " The earliest account, of the cliinchilla with which we have met is con- 

 tained in Father Joseph Acosta's Natural and Moral History of the Eas^t 

 and West Indies, published at Barcelona, in Spanish, in the year 1591. From 

 an English translation of this work, printed at London in 1604, we extract 

 the following sentence, which is all that relates to the animal in question. 

 " The chinchilles is another kind of small beasts, like squirrels, they have 

 a wonderful smoothe and soft skinne, which they weare as a healthfull 

 thing to comfort the stomacke, and those parts that have neede of a moder- 

 ate heate ;" [as most " beasts" do ; but the concluding part of the extract 

 shows that this is spoken of the human natives, not of the poor chinchillas 

 themselves ;] " they make coverings and rugges of the liaire of these chin- 

 chilles, which are found on the Sierre of Peru." 



" We find these animals again mentioned, and nearly to the same purpose, 

 in " The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Knight, in his Voyage into 

 the South Sea, An. Dom. 1593," published at London in a small folio, in the 

 year 1622, and reprinted, three years aftei-wards, in the fourth part of 

 " Purchas his Pilgrims." This hardy and adventurous seaman appears, 

 notwithstanding the somevihat contemptuous manner in which he speaks 

 of the " princes and nobles" that " laie «'aite" for these skins, to have been 

 much of the same opinion M-ith regard to their superior quality and com. 

 fort It is worthy of remark that he treats them not a, wool, in which light 

 Acosta seems to have regarded them, but as fur. " Amongst others," he 

 says, (showing, by the by, as little respect for the niceties of grammar as the 

 translator aiove quoted), " they have little beastes, like imto a squirrell, 

 but that hee is grey, his skinne is the most delicate soft and curious furre 

 that I have seene, and of much estimation, (as is reason,) in the Peru ; few 

 of them come into Spaine, because difficult to be come by, for that the prin- 

 ces and nobles laie waite for them, they call this beast Chinchilla, and of 

 them they have great abundance. ' 



" In the foregoing quotations the chinchilla is only said to be like asquir. 

 rel : later writers appear to have confounded them. Thus when Alon'io do 

 Ovalle, another Spaniard, whose " Historical Relation of the Kingdom of 

 Cliili" was published at Rome in 1646, says that "the squirrels [Ardas] 

 which are found only in the Valley of Guasco, are ash-coloured, and their 



