P.S. I have taken measures for procuring the Paccan Nuts and the seed of the Sugar Tree. Are there no other things here which would be acceptable on a like account? You will withold from me a real pleasure if you do not favor me with your commands freely. Perhaps some of our animal curiosities would enable you to gratify particular characters of merit. I can without difficulty get the skins of all our common and of some of our rarer quadrupeds, and can have them stuffed if desired. It is possible also that I may be able to send some of them alive. I lately had on hand a female opossum with 7 young ones, which I intended to have reared for the purpose partly of experiments myself and partly of being able to forward some of them to you, in case of an opportunity and your desiring it. Unfortunately they have all died. But I find they can be got at any time almost in the Spring of the year, and if the season be too far advanced now, they may certainly be had earlier in the next Spring. I observe that in your Notes you number the fallow and Roe-deer among the native quadrupeds of America. As Buffon had admitted the fact, it was, whether true or erroneous, a good argument no doubt against him. But I am persuaded they are not natives of the New Continent. Buffon mentions the Chevreuil in particular as abounding in Louisiana. I have enquired of several credible persons who have traversed the Western woods extensively and quite down to New Orleans, all of whom affirm that no other than our common deer are any where seen. Nor can I find any written evidence to the contrary that deserves notice. You have I believe justly considered our Monax as the Marmotte of Europe. I have lately had an opportunity of examining a female one with some attention. Its weight after it had lost a good deal of blood was 5½ lbs. Its dimensions, shape, teeth, and structure within as far as I could judge corresponded in substance with the description given by D’Aubenton. In sundry minute circumstances a precise correspondence was also observable. The principal variations were 1. in the face which was shorter in the Monax than in the proportions of the Marmotte, and was less arched about the root of the nose. 2. In the feet, each of the forefeet having a fifth nail about ⅓ of an inch long growing out of the inward side of the heel, without any visible toe. From this particular it would seem to be the Marmotte of Poland, called the Bobac, rather than the Alpine Marmotte. 3. In the teats, which were 8 only. The Marmotte in Buffon had 10. 4. In several circumstances of its robe, particularly of that of the belly, which consisted of a short coarse thin hair, whereas this part of Buffon’s Marmotte was covered with a thicker fur than the back &c. A very material circumstance in the comparison remains yet to be ascertained. The European Marmotte is in the class of those which are dormant during the winter. No person here of whom I have enquired can decide whether this be a quality of the Monax. I infer that it is of the dormant class not only from its similitude to the Marmotte in other respects, but from the sensible coldness of the Monax I examined compared with the human body, altho’ the vital heat of quadrupeds is said in general to be greater than that of man. This inferiority of heat being a characteristic of animals which become torpid from cold, I should consider it as deciding the quality of the Monax in this respect, were it not that the subject of my examination, tho’ it remained alive several days in my hands, was so crippled and apparently dying the whole time that its actual heat could not fairly be taken for the degree of its natural heat. If it had recovered I intended to have made a trial with the Thermometer. I now propose to have if I can one of their habitations discovered during the summer, and to open it during some cold day next winter. This will fix the matter. There is another circumstance which belongs to a full comparison of the two animals. The Marmotte of Europe is said to be an inhabitant of the upper region of mountains only. Whether our Monax be confined to mountainous situations or not I have not yet learnt. If it is not found as a permanent inhabitant of the level country, it certainly descends occasionally into the plains which are in the neighbourhood of mountains. I also compared a few days ago one of our moles (male) with the male one described in Buffon. It weighed 2 oz. 11 penwt. Its length from the end of its snout to the root of its tail was 5 inch. 3 lines English measure. That described in Buffon was not weighed I believe. Its length was 5 inch. french measure. The external and internal correspondence seemed to be too exact for distinct species. There was a difference nevertheless in two circumstances, one of which is not unworthy of notice, and the other of material consequence in the comparison. The first difference was in the tail, that of the mole here being 10½ English lines only in length, and naked, whereas that of Buffon’s mole was 14 French lines in length and covered with hair. If the hair was included in the latter measure, the difference in the length,2 ought scarcely to be noted. The second difference lay in the teeth. The mole in Buffon had 44. That which I examined had but 33. One of those on the left side of the upper Jaw, and next to the principal Cutters, was so small as to be scarcely visible to the natural eye, and had no visible corresponding tooth on the opposite side. Supposing this defect of a corresponding tooth to be accidental, a difference of 10 teeth still remains. If these circumstances should not be thought to invalidate the identity of species, the mole will stand as an exception to the Theory which supposes no animal to be common to the two Continents, which cannot bear the cold of the region where they join, since according to Buffon this species of mole is not found “dans les climats froids, ou la terre est gelée pendant la plus grande partie de l’annèe,” and it cannot be suspected of such a Journey during a short summer as would head the sea which separates the two Continents. I suspect that several of our quadrupeds which are not peculiar to the new Continent will be found to be exceptions to this Theory, if the mole should not. The Marmotte itself, is not an Animal taken notice of very far to the North and as it travels slowly, and is deprived of its locomotive powers altogether by cold, cannot be supposed to have travelled the road which leads from the old to the new world. It is perhaps questionable whether any of the dormant animals if any such be really common to Europe and America can have emigrated from one to the other. I have thought that the cuts of the Quadrupeds in Buffon, if arranged in frames, would make both an agreeable and instructive piece of wall furniture. What would be about the cost of them in such a form? I suppose they are not to be had, coloured to the life, and would besides be too costly. What is the price of Buffon’s birds coloured?

Your letter of the 28. October has never come to hand.