NATURAL HISTORY. - 57 
Guinea, Ethiopia, and Madagafcar.. The famous. 
drug, called Mu/fk, is produced from them. To pro- 
cure which, thofe who keep them provide a box for 
their habitation, and collect. the mufk, by {craping it 
three times a week. The male, if irritated, will yield 
moft. When young, they are fed with millet pap, 
and a little fifh or flefh; but, when old, with raw flefh 
principally. In their wild ftate they prey on. fowis. 
Although a native of warm climates, it will live in 
temperate, and even in cold regions, if carefully de- 
fended from the weather.——Great numbers are 
bred in Hojland, where they afford confiderable em- 
olument to theirowners. he mufk of Amfterdam, 
pring lefs adulterated than any other, is moft efteem 
ed, . 
a 
t 
* 
I} Hi — 
BEAVER. 
‘Tar beaver is the only quadruped that has a fiat 
broad tail, covered with fcales, which ferves ‘it asa 
rudder in the water, and alfo as a cart to carry mate- 
rials for its building on land. ‘The-hind feet are 
webbed, but the fore feet are not, from the neceflity 
of ufing them as hands. ‘The fore part, in general,. 
refembles a quadruped, and the hind part a filh. “Vhe 
teeth are formed like a faw, with which they cut the 
wood they ufe in building their huts, and damming 
the water out of them. ‘The fur, which is of a deep | 
chefnut brown, is the moft valuable material ufed 
in the hat manufactory. [Its length, from nofe to 
tail, is about three feet; the tail is eleven inches long 
and three broad. | 
- In June and July they form their focieties, of two 
and three hundred, which they. continue all the reft 
ofthe year. Wherever tiicy meet, they fix their a- 
bode, which is alwa’s by the fide of a lake or river. 
The fagacity of this animal is truly worthy the con-~ 
