THE ALPINE MARMOT. 327 



They run much swifter up hill than down ; and ascend trees, 

 rocks, and walls with great facility. The chimney-sweepers of 

 Paris, who are all Savoyards, are ludicrously said to have 

 learned their art from the marmot. 



They feed on fruits, roots, &c., and use their paws to convey 

 them to the mouth, while they sit upon their hind- quarters. 

 They make no provision for the winter ; but as soon as the 

 frosts set in they betake themselves to the burrow, close up the 

 entrances to it, and gradually assume a torpid state, and thus 

 remain as though dead and buried till re-animated by the 

 warmth of spring. When they awake they find themselves in 

 an extremely lean condition, as might be expected after such 

 a long sleep and total abstinence. 



The female produces but one litter in a year, which consists 

 of three or four young ones. 



If a young one be procured and domesticated, it soon becomes 

 tame and playful. Buffon says, it may easily be taught to 

 dance, to brandish a stick, and to obey its master's orders. 

 From its squat muscular make, it has great strength j but if 

 not molested it lives in peace and harmony with all the other 

 domestic animals, except dogs, which it so much dislikes that 

 it will attack the largest mastiff, biting it with the four large 

 incisor teeth, which are the marmot's most formidable weapons. 

 It is very apt to gnaw furniture, and even to make holes through 



their accounts of its actions. Many of them tell us it " makes hay while the 

 sun shines," biting off the grass, and then turning and drying it in its beams. 

 But the ingenuity of these hay-makers does not stop here. The next step is to 

 get the hay home ; and, as if marmots had neither mouths nor paws, we are 

 called upon to believe that they use one of their companions as a cart or 

 truck. It is evident, however, that in this case our popular authors have 

 chosen wilfully to retail as a fact that which old Gesner had merely advanced 

 as an inference. Thus modestly speaketh he : " One of them falleth on his 

 back, and the residue load his belly with the carriage, and when they have 

 laid sufficient upon him, he girteth it fast by taking his tail in his mouth, and 

 so they draw him into their cave : but I cannot affirm certainly whether this 

 be truth or falsehood ; for there is no reason that leadeth thereunto, but that 

 some of them have been found bald on the back." (Historic of Four-footed 

 Beasts, translated by Edward Topsell, Lond. 1607, p. 407.) The modern 

 versions only differ in making the female act as the hay-cart. 



