The True Northerner

Musk,

Musk is an animal secretion, obtained from the Moschus moschiferus, or musk deer, an inhabitant of the great mountain ranges of Central Asia. The Moschus moschiferus takes its English name from a strong resemblance, in shape, to the deer with which we are familiar in this country. Its usual size is about two feet in height, and three in length. The ears long and narrow; the tail very short. The nature of its coat approaches that of fur; the color is a dark gray. The musk is secreted by the male animal only, and is found in a sac, or closed pouch, under its belly. As soon as the deer is killed, the sac is cut off and dried with its contents; in this state it is sent to market. The capture of the deer is by no means an easy task. Timid in nature, and possessed of great activity and nimbleness, it frequents crags and retreats in the mountains, almost inaccessible to man, and prefers the regions of snow to lower grounds, which renders the labor of hunting still more arduous. Snaring is largely practised, and is probably the most successful method of taking them. Early travelers describe the hunt as being made by lying in wait for the deer, and attacking them with arrows and other missiles. Musk is in little grains, or lumps, adhering to each other, soft and somewhat unctuous to the touch, and of a dark, reddish-brown color. By age and exposure it loses water, and, perhaps, other liquid constituents, and consequently has less adhesiveness. Its odor, so well known to every one, is one of the most durable and persistent of any found in nature or producible by art. It is so strong and diffusive, that one part of musk will impart its scent to three thousand parts of inodorous matter. Exposed to the air, it will, after reaching a certain state of dryness, continue to give off odor indefinitely, and with scarcely any appreciable loss in weight. Leather scented with it retains the odor for years, and, its scents once diffused in any substance or place, which suffers little exposure, will remain for an almost incredibly long time. Musk is largely used as a perfume. Although not usually liked in its pure state by persons of cultivated taste, there is scarcely an odor more popular in compounds, or which is of greater use to the maker of perfumer. Its warm, aromatic smell and great durability, and the peculiar property it has (in common, however, with some other substances), of giving fixity or permanence to perfumes more volatile than itself, make it one of the most valuable of all his materials. It is also employed, to a limited extent, as a medicine. As before intimated, musk usually comes to us in its natural envelopes, known commercially as "pods," which range in weight from about three eighths to one and a quarter ounce. The average yield of grain musk, i.e., the musk itself, from each pod, is about one half its gross weight. Three varieties are known in market-Russian, Indian, and Chinese-which are named in the order of their excellence. The best Chinese is said to be that from the province or district of Tonquin, but the name "Tonquin musk" is probably now applied indiscriminately to all the Chinese product. Our chief supply of Chinese musk comes to us direct from Canton; it is imported in caddies containing fifty to one hundred ounces. Musk is prodigiously dear. Even at the present low rate of gold and absence of duty, the genuine Chinese, in pods, is worth ten to eleven dollars per ounce in first hands, and the pure article, separated from its envelope, in like proportion, namely, twenty to twenty-five dollars. Notwithstanding this high price, its preparations can be produced at a moderate cost, because a little of it "goes such a way" in the matter of giving off odor.-Appleton's Journal.