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96 MUSKEGON comes to feed on the sweet potatoes at night ; it is very cunning, feigning death when caught Kanchil (Tragulus pygmaeus). in a noose. The Ceylon musk (meminna In- dica, Gray) is about 17 in. high, an elegant, graceful, and gentle animal, whose flesh is ex- cellent food; the ground color is cinereous olive, spotted, striped, and barred with white ; it lives in the jungles of Ceylon and of India. MUSKEGON, a S. W. county of the S. penin- sula of Michigan, bordering on Lake Michigan, and watered by White and Muskegon rivers and other streams ; area, about 500 sq. in. ; pop. in 1870, 14,894. The surface consists of undulating prairie land ; the soil is fertile. It is traversed by the Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore railroad. The chief productions in 1870 were 28,920 bushels of wheat, 28,629 of Indian corn, 24,028 of oats, 72,335 of potatoes, 55,- 872 Ibs. of wool, and 5,658 tons of hay. There were 800 horses, 975 milch cows, 1,037 other cattle, 2,530 sheep, and 1,545 swine; 3 manu- factories of carriages and wagons, 3 of iron castings, 4 of machinery, 3 of sash, doors, and blinds, 5 of tin, copper, and sheet-iron ware, 1 tannery, 1 currying establishment, and 62 saw mills. Capital, Muskegon. MUSKEGOJV, a city and the county seat of Muskegon co., Michigan, on Muskegon river, where it expands into a lake of the same name, near its mouth in Lake Michigan, on the Chi- cago and Michigan Lake Shore railroad, and at the terminus of the Michigan Lake Shore, the Muskegon and Big Rapids, and the Grand River Valley railroads, 90 m. N". W. of Lansing, and 175 m. W. K W. of Detroit; pop. in 1870, 6,002 ; in 1874, 8,505. It is a stopping place for the East Shore steamboat line, and has a daily line of steamers to Chicago. The soil in the vicinity is well adapted to fruit growing, and considerable attention has lately been paid to the cultivation of peaches and grapes; but the chief business of the city is the manufac- ture and shipment of lumber. The logs are floated down the river to the lake, which is 5 m. long and 2 m. wide. The annual ship- ments amount to about 300,000,000 ft. The MUSKET trade employs more than 100 vessels, and large quantities are also shipped by rail. The principal manufacturing establishments are 32 saw mills, two flouring mills, two large steam engine works and f ounderies, two saw factories, a boiler factory, and five planing mills and sash and blind factories. The city contains two na- tional banks, a union school, five ward schools, three weekly newspapers, and ten churches. Muskegon was first settled in 1836. It was laid out in 1853, incorporated as a village in 1861, and as a city in 1870. MUSKET, the smooth-bored firearm with which the infantry of all civilized nations has been armed from the beginning of the 18th century until nearly the present time. The best authorities give the derivation of the name from the French mouchet or the Latin muscetus, a male sparrow hawk. This is not so improb- able a derivation as would at first sight appear, for other firearms have been named after ani- mals, as for instance the falcon and the dragon ; and the probable reason of its use will be found further on. The first portable firearm of which we have any representation is exhibited in a French translation of Quintus Curtius, written in 1468. It was called the bombard or bom- bardelle, and was a heavy weapon made in the shape of a blunderbuss, and fired from the shoulder, or from a wooden frame or rampart, FIG. 1. Bombard. with a live coal or match. There is some evi- dence that these weapons were used as early as