4 MOSCHUS MOSCHIFERUS. 



from rock to rock with great agility, and, when pursued, taking 

 refuse in the highest and most inaccessible summits. It lives 

 retired and solitary, except when large flocks collect, in order to 

 change their residence, being driven southward by the approaching 

 cold. During this migration the peasants lie in wait for them, 

 and either take them in snares, or kill them with bludgeons and 

 arrows. Though timid and gentle in their wild state, they are 

 never reconciled to domestication, and pine and die in confine- 

 ment. Daubenton, however, mentions one which he saw at 

 Versailles, in 1772, where it lived three years. They feed on roots, 

 and the tender branches of shrubs and trees, and are particularly 

 fond of lichens, arbutus, rhododendron, and wortle-berry plants. 



The flesh is eaten by the natives notwithstanding its strong 

 flavour of musk, and the skins are manufactured into bonnets and 

 winter dresses, by the Tungusians and the Russians ; but the animal 

 is chiefly hunted for the sake of the perfume. It is chiefly in the 

 rutting season that the bag of the animal becomes filled with musk, 

 when it diffuses a very strong and penetrating odour. At that 

 period, irritated by its abundance, the creature rubs itself against 

 rocks and trees, and thus occasionally ruptures the bag, and the 

 musk escapes from it. The musk thus ejected is carefully gathered, 

 from the places where it occurs, as it possesses in a very eminent 

 degree, all the peculiar qualities of the musk ; that which is taken 

 from the bag, not being always mature. 



According to Tavernier, the best and greatest quantity of musk 

 comes from the kingdom of Bontan, whence it is carried for sale 

 to Patna, in Bengal. After killing the animal, the peasants cut 

 off the bag, which is about the size of a pigeon's egg, and is situ- 

 ated nearer the organs of generation than the navel. As soon as 

 the bag is cut away, a small hollow reed is inserted into it, that 

 the musk may not suffer, which it would be apt to do from want 

 of air, and the whole is tied round with a sinew of the animal. 



Musk is brought to this country from China, in caddies, which 

 contain from twenty to sixty and an hundred ounces each. The 

 Tibetian is considered by far the best, but an inferior sort is im- 

 ported from Brasil, and a still worse from Russia. The best is 

 that which is in the natural follicle, or pod, which is a small round 

 bladder, of a brownish colour, lined with a very thin membrane, 



