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When surprised by the hunters and their dogs, it will battle furiously till life is extinct: all the while emitting a strong disagreeable smell, after the manner of the weasels and polecats. The Racoon, which we have grouped with the badgers, is both a North and South American animal; dwelling in dense forests, and making its lair in the hollow of a tree.
"Although there may be a hundred red-skins in the neighbourhood, I must have that fellow for my breakfast," I said to myself. I released my rifle and fired. Down fell the racoon at the foot of the tree. "He is of no use to me unless I can get hold of him, and even could I pick him up, I must eat him raw, as I have no means of lighting a fire where I am," said I to myself.
I took a draught myself, and never have I enjoyed so much the choicest beverage in my father's house as I did that cool draught. I now pointed to the racoon, and asked him if he was hungry. "Very," was his answer; "I could eat that brute raw." "No need of that," said I; "just collect materials, and we will quickly have a fire."
"Don't insult me, you red-faced racoon," retorted Massan, while he and his comrades circled round the kettle, and began a vigorous attack on the scalding mess; "my throat is not so used to swallowin' fire as your own. I never knowed a man that payed into the grub as you do. Bah! how hot it is.
"Vat the devil is de matter wid you, Loup Garou?" remarked the Canadian at length, as, removing the pipe from his lips, he stretched his legs, and poised himself in his low wood-bottomed chair, putting forth his right hand at the same time to his canine follower. "You not eat, and you make noise as if you wish me to see one racoon in de tree."
As I insisted on his doing this, he begged that he might first carry me to a tree, at the foot of which he made up a bed with our blankets; and leaving our guns by my side, he hurried across the hummock. It appeared to me, however, that he was a long time absent. I began to be afraid that some accident had happened to him, when I saw him coming back, holding up a big racoon.
"Some sleigh-robes, Lady Mary, are made of bear-skins, lined with red or blue flannel; some are of wolf-skins, lined with bright scarlet cloth; and some of racoon, the commonest are buffalo-skins; I have seen some of deer-skins, but these last are not so good, as the hair comes off, and they are not so warm as the skins of the furred or woolly-coated animals"
Like the racoon, it had plantigrade feet, a burly, rounded body, and a very thick hairy tail ringed also like that of the American animal but unlike the latter, its muzzle, instead of being long and slender, was short, round, and somewhat cat-like; while its hair, or more properly its fur, formed a thick even coat all over its body, limbs, and tail, and presented a smooth and shining surface.
The task of thus serving as the vehicle being evidently the least enviable part of the business, is taken by every one of the party in turn. Crab Fishing. The following is an instance of the extraordinary cunning manifested by the Racoon.
"Oh, true indeed," said Nimble; "if it had not been for that famous jump you made, Silvy, and, Velvet, your two admirers, the hawk and racoon, would soon have hid all your beauties from the world, and put a stop to your travels."
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