59 
[23] Thirdly, Of Fifries 1 
PLiny and I/adore write there are not above 144 Kinds 
of Fifties, but to my knowledge there are nearer 
300: I fuppofe America was not known to Pliny and 
I/adore. 
which see also p. 53 of this; otter; marten, "as ours are in England, but blacker;" 
sable, " much of the size of a mattrise, perfect black, but ... I never saw but two 
of them in eight years' space;" the squirrel, "three sorts, — the mouse-squirril, 
the gray squirril, and the flying-squirril (called by the Indian assaflanick).'" Our 
author's mouse-squirrel, which he describes, is the ground or striped squirrel : 
probably the " anequus, a little coloured squirrel " of R. Williams, /. c. ; and the 
anikooscss (rendered Suisse') of Rasles, /. c. The mattrise of our author is, accord- 
ing to him, " a creature whose head and fore-parts is shaped somewhat like a 
lyon's ; not altogether so big as a house-cat. They are innumerable up in the 
countrey, and are esteemed good furr." — Voyages, p. 87. The sable is compared 
with the mattrise, at least in size; and the name is perhaps comparable with 
mattegooessoo of Rasles, /. c. ; but this is rendered lievre. Wood adds to this list 
of our quadrupeds, mistakenly, the ferret; and R. Williams, the " ochquutchaun- 
nug, — a wild beast of a reddish hair, about the bigness of a pig, and rooting like 
a pig; " which seems to answer, in name as well as habits, to our woodchuck, or 
ground-hog. 
1 The author's attempt here at a general catalogue of the fishes, mollusks, &c, 
of the North-Atlantic Ocean, affords but a poor make-shift for such a list as we 
might fairly have expected from him of the species known to the early fishermen 
in the waters and seas of New England ; and the account in his Vcn-ages (pp. 
104-15) is again an improvement on the present, and is confined to the inhabi- 
tants of our waters. The present editor has little to offer in elucidation of the 
list; which indeed, in good part, appears sufficiently intelligible. Compare 
Wood, New-Eng. Prospect;, chap. x. 
