THE CHINCHILLA. 
CHINCHILLA LANIGERA. 
THE peculiar softness and beauty of the fur of the 
Chinchilla have been so long, so ornamentally, and so 
comfortably known to our fair countrywomen, that it 
would be paying their taste and curiosity a sorry com- 
pliment to imagine that they have no desire to become 
acquainted with the animal by which it is furnished. 
We are happy therefore to have it in our power to 
gratify them, as well as the scientific zoologist, by a 
figure and description of so interesting a creature, the 
former the only one that has yet been given to the 
world, and the latter the first that has appeared in our 
language. 
Notwithstanding the extensive trade carried on in its 
skins, the Chinchilla might have been regarded until the 
last year almost as an unknown animal: for no modern 
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