The hardships, fatigue, and perils with which these expeditions are attended, may well be conceived when we consider the nature of the country, the season of the year, and the intense cold which the hunters have to endure. Frequently do they penetrate into the depths of immense and trackless woods, from which, they have no other mode of securing a retreat, than by marking the trees as they advance; and, if these marks should be obliterated and fail them, they must inevitably be lost; often have they to sustain the extremes of cold and hunger. Some instances have been mentioned of sable hunters, when their provisions have failed, being reduced to the necessity of tying thin boards tight to their stomachs to prevent the cravings of appetite. To all these must be added the constant peril, under which they labour, of being overwhelmed and lost in the snow. The fur of the sable is short, and generally of glossy and beautiful blackish brown colour: some animals, however, are of lighter colour, some have yellowish spots on the neck, and others have been found entirely white; but the skins of these are of little further value than as curiosities. There is a mode of dyeing the light-coloured furs darker, and also of dyeing other furs to imitate sables; but these are easily discovered by their having neither the smoothness nor the gloss of furs in a natural state. Sables are very sprightly and active little animals. They form holes or burrows under ground in forests, and the banks of rivers, and subsist on small quadrupeds, birds, eggs, and other animal substances of different kinds. 56. _The FERRET_ (Mustela furo) _is a species of weasel, which, in shape, somewhat resembles the martin (54); but it has a strong and more shaggy fur, of dingy yellowish colour, and red eyes._ _It is found wild in the northern parts of Africa._ The principal use to which this quadruped is applied is in rabbit warrens, for driving those animals out of their burrows into the nets or traps of the warreners. Though naturally of savage disposition, ferrets are easily tamed, and rendered sufficiently docile for all the services that are required of them. They should be kept in tubs or chests, and well supplied with clean straw, as otherwise they would become excessively fetid and offensive. When about to be used, they should be kept, for a little while, without food, and have their mouths securely muzzled. The former, lest they should become indolent and not hunt: and the latter, lest they should satiate themselves on the rabbits, and consequently be disinclined to return from the burrows. Some warreners are so cruel as to sew up the mouths of ferrets instead of muzzling them.