OTTER. 
Inhabits Poland , and the N, of Europe ; and is 
found on the banks of all the rivers in the country 
N. of the Talk * 5 lives on fifh, frogs * and water 
infe£ls : its fur very valuable, next in beauty to that 
of the fable, caught in Bajhkiriz with dogs and 
traps : is mod exceffively foetid. 
The Minx of N. America is the fame animal with 
this. The late worthy Mr. Peter Collinfon >* fa¬ 
vored me with the following account he received 
from John Bar tram, of Penfylvania : 4 The Minx 
4 (fays he) frequents the water like the Otter, and 
4 very much refembles it in diape and color, but is 
4 lefs; will abide longer under the water than the 
* mufk quafh, mulk rat, or little beaver : yet it 
4 will leave its watery haunts to come and rob our 
6 hen roods ^ bites off their heads and fucks their 
4 blood : when vexed it has a ftrong loathfome 
4 fmell: fo may be called the water pole cat: its 
4 length, from nofe to tail, twenty inches *, the 
4 tail four : is of a fine fhining dark brown color. 9 
From the conformity between the names this ani¬ 
mal goes by, in America and Sueden , ( Minx and 
Mrenk) it feems as if fome Suedijh colonid, who had 
feen it in his own country, firfl bellowed the name 
it now goes by, a little changed from the original; 
the fkins are often brought over to England . 
* ]By ietter dated June 14, La<wf on alfo gives Tome account 
of it, p. 122, lift. Carolina: He lays it is a great enemy to the Tor- 
toifes, whofe eggs it fcrapes out of the land and devours: eats frdh 
water mufcles, whofe ihells are found in great abundance at the 
mouth of their holes, high up in the rivers, in whofe banks they 
live : may be made domeitic : is a great deftroyer of rats and mice. 
LaHontan. 1 . 232. feems to mean the fame animal, by his Foutereaux, 
an amphibious fort of little Pole-cats. 
Ji/a, 
