416 KLUTTOft, 
figure seems to alter. Thus voraciously it con- 
tinues eating till, incapable of any other animal 
function, it lies totally torpid by the animal it has 
killed ; and in this situation continues for two o t 
three days. In this loathsome and helpless state, 
it finds its chief protection from its horrid smell, 
which few animals care to come near ; so that it 
continues eating and sleeping till its prey be de» 
\ cured, bones and all, and then it mounts a tree, in 
quest of another adventure. 
The glutton, like many of the weasel kind, seem^ 
to prefer the most putrid flesh to that newly killed ; 
and such is the voraciousness of this hateful crea«* 
ture, that, if its swiftness and strength were equal 
to its rapacity, it would soon thin the forests of 
every other living creature. But, fortunately, it is 
so slow, that there is scarce a quadruped that cannot 
escape it, except the beaver. This, therefore, it 
very frequently pursues upon land ; but the bea- 
ver generally makes good its retreat by taking to 
tiie water, where the glutton has no chance to 
succeed. This pursuit only happens in summer ; 
for in winter all that remains is to attack the bea- 
ver’s house, as at that time it never stirs front 
home. This attack, however, seldom succeeds ; 
for the heaver has a covert way bored under the 
ice, and the glutton has only the trouble and dis~ 
appointment of sacking an empty town. 
A life of necessity generally produces a good 
fertile invention. The glutton, continually pressed 
by the call of appetite., and having neither swiftness 
nor activity to satisfy it, is obliged to make up by 
stratagem the defects of nature. It is often seen 
to examine the traps and the snares laid for other 
animals, in order to anticipate the fowlers. It is 
said to practise a thousand arts to procure its prey* 
to steal upon the retreats of the rein-deer, the 
flesh of which animal it loves in preference to all 
