ORDER V. THE CARNIVORA. 103 



ejected to a considerable distance. Tiiere are numerous species, all of 

 Avliich are thick-set in form, and wanting in activity. They live in burrows, 

 subsist on birds, eggs, frogs, &c., and sometimes enter cellars and store- 

 rooms iu search of food. They arc counuon to both Americas, I'rom Canada 

 to C'hili, and all possess the same disgusting attribute, of the cliccts of 

 which many anecdotes arc related. A maid-servant was once seated liy the 

 coacbnian wlio was driving bis vehicle through a wood in the State of New 

 York, wlien a skunk, crossing the road, failing to spring through a split 

 fence before the horses came up, became alarmed, and flung the contents 

 of the fetid bag, by a whisk of the tail, full upon the clothes of the young 

 woman, comjiletely ruining them, besides making her sick for some days. 

 Dogs, which attack them, no sooner feci the horrible effluvia in their nostrils, 

 than they dig with their snouts, like hogs, into the ground, and often scratch 

 their noses till they bleed profusely. Some years ago a Frenchman, who 

 had settled at Hartford, Connecticut, was going home from A^'ethersticld, a 

 place renowned for raising onions. It was evening, and in the twiliglit the 

 man saw a little animal crossing the patli before him. ?vot knowing or 

 suspecting its character, he darted upon it, caught it, and put it in his 

 jiockct. When he reached home, he took it out, and a general exclamation 

 of astonishment burst from the household at the extraordinary flavor of tiie 

 little beast. " What is it?" "What can it be?" was the general inquiry. 

 " I cannot saj^," said the Frenchman, " but I suppose it must be a ^Vethers- 

 field kitten ! " 



On a certain occasion. Dr. B., an eminent divine, was walking at 

 c^■ening in a by-way, when he saw a small animal treating along before him. 

 lie easily guessed its true character, and having a volume of Ilees's Cyclo- 

 pedia under his arm, he hurled it with all his might at the suspicious 

 C[uadrupcd. It took eflect, but the animal retorted by discharging, both 

 upon the Cyclopedia and tlie D. D., a shaft from his abominable quiver. It 

 seems that the event made an indelible impression, both upon the garments 

 and the memory of the divine ; the former he buried ; and when, some years 

 after, he was advised to write a book against a rival sect, he replied, " x\o, 

 no ; I once threw a c^uarto at a skunk, and got the worst of it. I shall not 

 repeat the folly." 



"In the year 174'J," says Kahn, "one of these animals came near the 

 farm where I lived. It was in winter time, during the night, and tlie dogs, 

 ■which were on watch, pursued it for some time, until it discharged against 

 them. Although I was in a bed at some distance from the scene of action, 

 I thought I should have been suffocated, and the cows and oxen, by their 

 lowing, showed how much they were affected by the stench. 



" About the end of the same year another of these animals crept into our 



