This Otter, (_fig. 191._) which is larger than ours, and which must
be a native of the north of Europe, as well as of Canada, occasioned
me to enquire whether it was not the same animal as that called by
Aristotle the _latax_, which, he says, is much larger and stronger than
the common otter. But his observations do not entirely agree with the
animal in question, and therefore as it perfectly resembles the common
otter in other respects, I judged that it was not a particular species,
but only a simple variety; and as the Greeks, especially Aristotle,
have taken great care not to give different names, except to distinct
species, we are therefore convinced that the _latax_ is another animal.
Besides, as the otters, like the beavers, are commonly larger, and
their hair finer, and of a more beautiful black in America than in
Europe; this Canadian otter ought, in fact, to be larger and blacker
than our otter. But in attempting to discover what the _latax_ of
Aristotle might be, I conjectured that it was the same animal as Belon
calls the _marine wolf_.
Aristotle mentions six amphibious animals, of which only three are
known to us, namely, the seal, the beaver, and the otter; the three
others, the _latax_, the _satherion_, and the _satyrion_, still remain
unknown, because their names are only mentioned without any description
of them. In this case, as in all those where we cannot draw any direct
induction from a knowledge of the object, we must have recourse to
the mode of exclusion: but we cannot make use of that mode with any
success, unless we are nearly acquainted with every thing; when that
is the case, we can conclude a negative from the positive, and this
negative hence becomes a positive fact. For example, I believe that by
long study, I have attained a knowledge of almost every quadruped. I
know that Aristotle could not have had any knowledge of those peculiar
to the continent of America. I also know those which are amphibious,
and among these I separate those that belong to America, as the tapir,
the cabiai, the ondatra, &c. and then there remains only the amphibious
animals of our own continent, namely, the hippopotamus, the walrus,
or sea-cow, the sea-wolf of Belon, the beaver, the otter, the sable,
the water-rat, the Muscovy musk-rat, the water shrew-mouse, and we may
include the ichneumon, which some have looked upon as an amphibious
animal, and styled it the Egyptian otter. I retrench from this number
the walrus, or sea-cow, the seal, or sea-cow, which being only met with
in the northern seas, was not known to Aristotle; I also retrench the
hippopotamus, the water-rat, and the ichneumon, because he speaks of
them in another part of his work by their proper names; and I likewise
retrench the seal, the beaver, and the otter, which are well known,
and the water shrew-mouse, because it is too much like the land one
to have received a different name. There then remains the sea-wolf
of Belon, the sable, and the Muscovy musk-rat, for the _latax_, the
_satherion_, and the _satyrion_. Of these three animals, the sea-wolf
of Belon is the only one that is larger than the otter, therefore it
alone can represent the latax; consequently the sable and the Muscovy
musk-rat, must represent the _satherion_ and the _satyrion_. It must,
however, be perceived that these conjectures, which I believe to be
well founded, are not among the number which time can elucidate,
unless some Greek manuscripts shall be discovered which are unknown
at present, where these names are made use of, and explained by new
indications.