It is a spare drinker. It
discharges the solid residuum in small quantities, about every other
day or at irregular intervals, and the substance of it is hard and dry
like the excrement of a dog. The wind discharged from off its
stomach is pungent, and its urine emits a strong odour, a phenomenon
which, in the case of dogs, accounts for their habit of sniffing at
trees; for, by the way, the lion, like the dog, lifts its leg to
void its urine. It infects the food it eats with a strong smell by
breathing on it, and when the animal is cut open an overpowering
vapour exhales from its inside.
Some wild quadrupeds feed in lakes and rivers; the seal is the
only one that gets its living on the sea. To the former class of
animals belong the so-called castor, the satyrium, the otter, and
the so-called latax, or beaver. The beaver is flatter than the otter
and has strong teeth; it often at night-time emerges from the water
and goes nibbling at the bark of the aspens that fringe the
riversides. The otter will bite a man, and it is said that whenever it
bites it will never let go until it hears a bone crack. The hair of
the beaver is rough, intermediate in appearance between the hair of
the seal and the hair of the deer.
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