SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jan. 1, 1866. 



THE STORE-KEEPER. 



ONE of the liveliest, prettiest, merriest, and, to 

 judge from appearances, the happiest little 

 animal one meets with in north-western wilds, is 

 a tiny Squirrel, known and feared by the Indians, 

 who have a name for it, unpronounceable by any 

 mouth of ordinary conformation ; and to attempt 

 writing it is only to give a long list of double and 

 single letters, the type-pattern for spelling Indian 

 words. Eor example, — ch-a-ta la-ch, — what can you 

 make of that ? Corkscrew the word out, giving it 

 all the throat sound and tongue-twisting you can 

 manage, and it has as little resemblance to the name 

 as rolled out from the larynx of a Red-skin, as the 

 wheeze of a bagpipe has to the clear, rich, mellow 

 note of the Mocking-bird. 



To the scientific world my furry friend is known 

 as Tamias (nearly as bad as Indian) ; tamias being- 

 Greek for store-keeper, the generic title. The 

 specific name tells us that he has four stripes, or 

 "ribbons" marking his skin. The Missouri Striped 

 Squirrel is the familiar appellation of the white 

 settler; the Ogress Squirrel of the savage — why 

 so named will be shown in the sequel. 



The specific characters are briefly : tail quite as 

 long as the body, a grey stripe along the top of the 

 head, joining two others passing below the eyes, a 

 hoary patch behind the ears; general colour, deep 

 ferruginous red ; back marked with four equidistant 

 stripes, nearly black, extending from the neck to the 

 tail ; length four inches, without the tail. 



Incisors (cutting-teeth) strong, and deep orange- 

 colour on the outer surface; on'each side of the mouth 

 is a large pouch, opening just anterior to the molar 

 teeth, and extending back to the shoulder. 



In these capacious sacks, seeds, bits of favourite 

 roots, indeed anything either eatable or storeable, 

 is carried to the " Store-keeper's " residence. The 

 pouches are filled from the mouth ; the fore feet being 

 used much the same as hands, to press the cargo 

 back, and tightly pack it ; when emptying them, the 

 fore feet are again called into requisition ; placed 

 behind the corpulent bags, the contents are pressed 

 out by a kneading kind of movement. 



Where a more striking evidence of Divine wisdom 

 and forethought? but for these leather bags, it 

 would be utterly impossible for this little animal to 

 carry in a store of provisions sufficient for his winter 

 supply ; he does not sleep, like the " Rock Whistler," 

 and live on his own fat, but only partially hybernates, 

 and hence needs a stock of food, with which he pro- 

 vides himself during the sunny summer days. 



His mansion is usually under a fallen tree, or 

 amidst the tangled roots of the giant pines. A small 

 burrow neatly dug, aud round as an auger-hole, leads 

 in a slant Lag direction to an open cavity, neatly lined 

 wil h dry leaves, blades of grass, and moss, a bed soft 



as eider down, wherein the "Store-keeper" sleeps. 

 In an adjoining opening, on a kind of earthen shelf, 

 is his store neatly piled away, to be carefully hoarded, 

 uutil the biting blasts of winter, sweeping through 

 the forests, stripping land and tree alike of their 

 verdure, warn the provident workman to retire into 

 his snug quarters, not to shiver, cold aud hungry, 

 until the spring-time comes, and bids the flowers 

 ope their blossoms and the buds burst into leaf, — 

 not a bit of it — his industry has provided not only a 

 snug residence, but food in abundance, to supply his 

 daily necessities; a garrison in which he can defy 

 wind, rain, frost, and snow, and bide his time until 

 the Ice-king yields his sceptre to the genial ruler of 

 the summer. 



This squirrel seems to live everywhere. Wander 

 round the margin of the emerald-green prairie, and 

 there, amidst the hazel, mohouia, vine maple, and 

 various shrubs that love the sunshine, the " Store- 

 keeper " is sure to be seen, skipping along on a dead 

 stick, or scudding through the bushes ; stopping con- 

 tinually to have a peep at the intruder ; sitting- 

 bolt upright, with its tail erected, defiantly chatters 

 angrily, in a kind of half-laugh, half-bark, then 

 uttering a shrill chirp, the danger signal to others, 

 makes for its hole and disappears. Paddle in a canoe 

 down the surging stream, past the piles of drift-wood, 

 heaped mountains of dead trees ; and as the frail 

 bark shoots by, you are certain to see the ' : Store- 

 keeper " scampering from log to log, his scolding 

 and whistling lost in the noisy rush of the torrent. 

 Dive into the dark shadow of the pine forest, — 

 where mouldy life holds high festival, where huge 

 fungoid growths, and giant agarici spring in tabby 

 clusters from the oozy logs, — where the pools, thick 

 and slimy, are covered with the green fleshy leaves 

 of the " skunk cabbage," and each branch and spray, 

 draped with the black lichen {Lichen jubatas), seem 

 mourning over the death and decay on every side : in 

 these damp solitudes lives the "Store-keeper " merry 

 and quarrelsome, as in brighter scenes. Climb the 

 mountain-side and scramble through the rock-walled 

 ravine, where the pine clings to the stones rather 

 than grows from their clefts ; there, no murmuring 

 streamlet cools and refreshes thirsty nature, or 

 breaks the solemn silence with its rippling music ; 

 not even the footfall of the savage disturbs its 

 echoes ; and naught living, save the denizens of the 

 air, that peep into its weird depths from the tree- 

 tops, ever visits it ; yet in the very loneliest of these 

 glens the " Store-keeper " is sure to be met with ; 

 climb on, higher, higher, to the perpetual snow-line, 

 marking the boundary betwixt life and icy desola- 

 tion, and there too, on the very frontier, he bounds, 

 and jumps, from rock to rock, ever scolding, laughing, 

 whistling, and toiling, to garner in his harvest. 



Two of them, husbaud and wife, took up their 

 abode in an old saw-pit, close to our winter-quarters, 

 on the "Upper Columbia,, and there constructed a 



