on the under side, by which process the long
hairs are shaved off at the roots, and the soft,
rich, under layer of fur is left uninjured. Squirrels
also give a pretty fur. The famous
Weisenfels linings are made from the white parts of
the squirrels which abound in the woods; and
white rabbit-skins are not far behind. Indeed,
rabbit-skin used to be so much prized, that in
Henry the Eighth's time a formal decree was
passed, forbidding the use of the cony or rabbit-fur
to any one not a gentleman or noble. Rabbit-fur,
and hare-fur, and beaver-fur, all felt;
the beaver hats of past repute used to be beaver-fur
felted, not beaver-skin pure and simple. Part
of the process is carried on by the aid of cotton-wool ,
which will not felt of itself, but will aid in
the felting of other things, coming out on the
surface like cream upon milk. So, at least, says Dr.
Lankester in his Lectures on the Uses of
Animals to man, lying open on Ihe desk before us.

Then there are the beasts which give
perfumes: the civet-cats of Asia and Africa, with their
pouches full of civet—of a pale brownish yellow
in colour, of the consistency of honey, and
absolutely disgusting in odour, until mixed with
wax, lard, or spirit, when it becomes aromatic
and fragrant, and with the property of heightening
the sweetness of all other perfumes with
which it is mixed. The musk-deers of China,
Thibet, and Siberia, with their pouches full of
musk, also brown in colour and honey-like in
consistency; those two sea-turtles, with their
musky oil; the musk-ox of North America, and
the musk-rat, also of North America, with its
perfumed skin; the crocodile; and a little musky
gnat. The beaver, with his bag full of castoreum,
brown, unctuous, and fœtid. The Cape hog, with
his secretion of hyraceum, not in a separate bag
this time; and ambergris, a morbid secretion from
the liver of the spermaceti whale, usually found
swimming on the surface of the sea, on the coasts
of Coromandel, Japan, the Moluccas, and
Madagascar. Ambergris is inodorous, unless heated or
handled, and then it is sweet enough. And,
lastly, there are the " bezoar stones" found in
the wild goat of Persia, which were once used as
sovereign remedies for all diseases, but which a
pitiless chemistry has discovered to be nothing
nobler than little balls of undigested food, glued
together with phosphate of lime.

Other animals sacred to man and his wants,
are birds with glowing plumage, and birds with
fatty layers, like the sooty petrel or mutton-bird,
the guachero of the South American caves,
emus—one emu yielding two gallons of oil--
with the minor glories of geese—who does not
know the value of goose-grease, scientifically
applied?—and in India, peacocks and others.
Then, whales and seals and cod and bears give
oil and fat by the countless gallon. Then there
are the sponges, which are the skeletons of
certain backboneless beasts of the deep; and
oysters, bearing pearls for our adornment; and
the beautiful nacreous lining of the shell of the
same fish, and of many others, as the nautilus,
the haliotis, the mussel; and the cassis rufa, or
cameo-shell, of the Mediterranean; and corals;
and the byssus, with its silky filaments that can
be woven into texture; cuttle-fishes, bearing
sepia in their innermost being; whelks, carrying
the Tyrian purple in their throats; " Venetian
shells," for ornament; cowries; and all the
edible tribe. And insects, too, come in. Spanish
flies blister the universal lord, the acid of ants
eases his worst pains; the cochineal and lac
insects dye the silk which the bombyx spins—
which bombyx Chinamen eat in a stew as soon
as it has finished its cocoon; bees make man's
honey; leeches suck his heated blood; the gall-fly
makes oak apples whence he gets his gallic
acid and his ink; and he collects all the moths,
and beetles, and butterflies that please his
fancy, and collects them with such enthusiasm,
that he sometimes exterminates the breed. But
then he is a short-sighted animal is man; and
most short-sighted when most greedy.

In fact, it comes to this, that either man
uses the animal world for his own profit or pleasure,
or he destroys those members of it which he
cannot marshal in the way they should go. He
has constituted himself lord of all life, and by
reason too; and when his serfs are insubordinate,
he gives them a fillip, and sends them spinning
into space, and the eternal No of the natural
philosopher. Perhaps he is right. The rule,
that those who will not work shall not eat,
should be applied to all creation, not only to
himself; and where a beast cannot be made
generally useful, it seems only just and wise
that he should be sent to the illimitable backwoods
of annihilation, and his vacant place filled
up by some of the selected, of higher moral and
intellectual tendencies. The world has had more
than enough of tenderness for incapacity.

Now ready, price FOURPENCE,
SOMEBODY'S LUGGAGE.
FORMING
THE EXTRA DOUBLE NUMBER
FOR CHRISTMAS.
contents: His Leaving it till called for. His Boots.
His Umbrella. His Black Bag. His Writing-Desk. His
Dressing-Case. His Brown-Paper Parcel. His Portmanteau.
His Hat-Box. His Wonderful End.

Early in January NO NAME will be completed; when
a New Story by the Authoress of " MARY BARTON " will be
commenced, entitled
A DARK NIGHT'S WORK.
This will be followed, in March, by a New Serial Work
of Fiction by
CHARLES READE, D.C.L.,
Author of " IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND."

Just published, in Three Volumes, post 8vo,
NO NAME.
By WILKIE COLLINS.
SAMPSON LOW, SON, and Co., 47, Ludgate-hill.
* The author begs to announce that he has protected his right of
property (so far as the stage is concerned) in the work of his own
invention, by causing a dramatic adaptation of "No Name" to be written,
of which he is the sole proprietor, and which has been published and
entered at Stationers' Hall as the law directs.