MUSK BEAVER. 
■son of their amours. They feed on herbs, and 
' voraciously devour the fresh productions of 
the earth. By this redundance of excellent 
nourishment, the membrana adiposa expands, 
increases, and is filled with fat: the follicles, 
also, are renewed, and filled^ the generical 
organs unfold, and swell ; and then the animals 
acquire so strong an odour of musk, as to be 
hardly supportable. This odour is perceived at 
a distance; and, though agreeable to the Eu- 
ropeans, is so disgustful to the Savages, that 
they have denominated a river, because it is in- 
habited by a grea.t number of these Rats, the 
Stinking River. 1 
• The Females bring forth anmnilly five or 
-SIX yojQ ng. Their time of gestation is not 
long ; because they come in season in the be- 
;:g1nning of summer, and the young are pretty 
large in the month of October: When they 
retire, with their parents, into the tuts, which 
"are built every year ; for, it has been remarked 
that they never return to their old habitations. 
Their cry is a kind of groaning ; which the 
huQter imitates, in order to make them ap- 
pro adi him. Their fore-teeth aie so strong, 
and 
