The Mephitic Skunks . 1x7 
quarters with a skunk, by covering up the face, 
one’s clothes only are ruined. But this is not all one 
has to fear from an encounter ; the worst is that 
effluvium, after which crushed garlic is lavender, 
which tortures the olfactory nerves, and appears to 
pervade the whole system like a pestilent ether, 
nauseating one until sea-sickness seems almost a 
pleasant sensation in comparison. 
To those who know the skunk only from reputa- 
tion, my words might seem too strong ; many, 
however, who have come to close quarters with the 
little animal will think them ridiculously weak. 
And consider what must the feelings be of one who 
has had the following experience — not an uncommon 
experience on the pampas. There is to be a dance 
at a neighbouring house a few miles away ; he 
has been looking forward to it, and, dressing himself 
with due care, mounts his horse and sets out full of 
joyous anticipations. It is a dark windy evening, 
but there is a convenient bridle-path through the 
dense thicket of giant thistles, and striking it he puts 
his horse into a swinging gallop. Unhappily the 
path is already occupied by a skunk, invisible in the 
darkness, that, in obedience to the promptings of 
its insane instinct, refuses to get out of it, until the 
flying hoofs hit it and send it like a well-kicked 
football into the thistles. But the forefoot of the 
horse, up as high as his knees perhaps, have been 
sprinkled, and the rider, after coming out into the 
open, dismounts and walks away twenty yards from 
his animal, and literally smells himself all over, and 
with a feeling of profound relief pronounces himself 
clean. Not the minutest drop of the diabolical spray 
