HAPLODONTTDyE— TTTSTOPY AND HABITS OF II. RUFUS. ;")91 



The Sewellel was discovered* in 1805 or 180G by the famous travellers 

 Lewis and Clarke, whose account first appeared in 1814, in the Biddle-Allen 

 narrative of their expedition (2 vols., 8vo, Philadelphia, Bradford and Ins- 

 keep), and nearly simultaneously in the Rees English edition of the same date 

 (1 vol., 4to, Londonf). The notice by these authors runs as follows : — 



" Sewellel is a name given by the natives to a small animal found in the 

 timbered country on this [«'. e. Pacific] coast. It is more abundant in the 

 neighbourhood of the great Falls and rapids of the Columbia, than on the coast, 

 which we inhabit. 



"The natives make great use of the skins of this animal in forming their 

 robes, which they dress with the fur on, and attach them together with sinews 

 of the elk or deer: the skin, when dressed, is from fourteen to eighteen 

 inches long and from seven to nine in width; the tail is always separated 

 from the skin by the natives in making their robes.J This animal mounts a 

 tree,§ and burrows in the ground, precisely like a squirrel: || [Description 

 here follows.] .... Captain Lewis offered considerable rewards to the 

 Indians, but was never able to procure one of these animals alive." (Quoted 

 from text of the London 4to ed.) 



Upon the Sewellel of Lewis and Clarke was actually and entirely based 

 the Anisonyx rvfa of Rafinesque, who also gave names to others of the species 

 first described under vernacular names by these travellers. I have already 

 discussed the bearing of the term Anisonyx, and need not repeat that it is 

 a synonym of Cynomys, Raf, whose " Anisonyx brachiura" was based upon 

 the "Burrowing Squirrel" of Lewis and Clarke, as " Anisonyx ru fa" was upon 

 their Sewellel. Notwithstanding that the term was invented upon an errone- 

 ous interpretation of the meaning of Lewis and Clarke, and was applied to 

 two animals of widely different genera {Cynomys and Haplodon), it seems 

 that Rafinesque's specific term rvfa, being based exclusively upon the Sew- 



*Sir John Richardson is inclined to tbink that a passage in a much earlier work (Mackenzie's 

 Voy. to the Pacific, &c, p. 314) refers to the Sewellel. " Sir Alexander Mackenzie saw many animals, 

 which he terms 'moles', on the hanks of a small stream near the sources of the Columbia; but as we are 

 led to infer, from the way in which he speaks of them, that they were iu numbers above ground, I am 

 inclined to thiuk that they were sewellels, belonging to the genus aplodontia . . . " — {t'n. Bur.-Am. i, 

 1829,j>. 11.) 



t For "An account of the various publications relating to the Travels of Lewis and Clarke, with 

 a commentary on the Zoological Results of their Expedition ", prepared by the present writer, see Bull. 

 U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, No. li, '2d ser., pp. 417-444 (Svo, Washing- 

 ton, Government Printing Office, February 8, 187C). 



t But cf. Sir John Richardson, as quoted beyond. 



5 Doubtless an erroneous statement, as Biipposed by Audubon and Baehman, and later by Gibbs 

 and Suckley. 



II The " burrowing squirrel " of Lewis and Clarke was a Cynomys. 



