RESIDENCE OF THE MISSION AT BUSHIRE. 67 
a scratching, that I was obliged to send them out of the room. Besides, 
one of the most common methods of catching them is by the glare of a 
lanthorn, which seems to deprive them of the power of moving, 
and subjects them quietly to the hand of the man who bears the light. 
There is another and an easy way of catching them, by pouring water 
down one of the apertures of their retreat; they immediately jump out. 
We hunted several with spaniels, but, although surrounded on all sides, 
they escaped with the greatest facility : when very closely pressed, they 
have a most dextrous method of springing to an amazing height over 
the heads of their pursuers; and, making two or three somersets in the 
air, they come down again in all safety on their hinder legs, many yards 
from the spot of their ascent. In this leap they probably use their 
diminutive paws. Even a greyhound stands no chance with them ; for 
as soon as he comes near, they take to the somersets, and the dog is 
completely thrown out. Their flesh is reckoned very fine, as the 
people here who eat them assure me. As the animal is very sensible of 
cold, and formed so delicately and apparently so little prepared to 
resist frosts and snows, I cannot think, though Sonn ini seems to imply 
it, that it is found in very northern climates. Rats and hares indeed 
are found in the coldest as well as in the warmest parts of the world j 
but nature has provided them with a clothing more appropriate to the 
change. 
