246 WILD NEIGHBORS chap. 



and as good as suckling-pig, which it resembles. 

 This of course implies that the animal has been 

 carefully skinned and freed from its glands. The 

 voyageurs of the Northwest were accustomed to 

 skin and dissect the animal under running water, 

 which rid it of its skunkiness ; in Nova Scotia, at 

 the other end of the continent, the Indians ate it 

 without minding whether it was tainted or not, 

 according to Gilpin. 



One topic in connection with this subject might 

 be debated at length here, did it seem worth while ; 

 namely, the exhibition of rabies in the skunk, com- 

 municating hydrophobia to any human being bitten 

 by an affected animal. Very full discussion of this 

 may be found in the "American Journal of Science 

 and Art " 1 for May, 1 874, by the Rev. H. C. Hovey ; 

 and this has been extensively quoted and com- 

 mented upon by Dr. Elliott Coues in his " Fur- 

 Bearing Animals," by William A. Baillie-Grohman 

 in his " Camps in the Rockies," and by other 

 competent authorities, so that the facts connected 

 with the subject are accessible to most readers. 

 In a word, the occasional appearance of rabies 

 among skunks is a well-known fact in all parts of 

 the country, and it has frequently happened that 

 men and dogs bitten by these animals have subse- 

 quently died of hydrophobia. It has been alleged 

 that this was a disease distinguished as mephitic 



1 Third series, Vol. VII, No. 41, Art. XLIV, pp. 477-483, May, 

 1874. 



