HAPLODONTID.E— HISTORY AND HABITS OF H..RUFUS. 597 



Suckley.) .... This animal burrows extensively in the ground. It chiefly 

 frequents spring heads in rich moist places, and is found as far up as the 

 dividing ridge of the Cascade mountains, and on both sides of the divide. I 

 noticed their burrows in 1853 at the top of the main Yakima pass. Near their 

 abodes were small bundles of some herb or plant cut with nicety and laid out on 

 logs to dry or wilt* The Indians trap them, and value their meat very much 

 as food." 



On subsequent pages of the same volume (pp. 124-126), Mr. Gibbs 

 continued : — 



"I noticed burrows of the show'tl in 1853, at the top of the main Yakima 

 Pass, in the Cascade mountains, at an elevation of 3,500 feet, and again in 



1854, at the Nahchess Pass in the same mountains The Yakima 



Indians call it Squallah. Its range in the Territory is quite extensive, from 

 hig-h mountain elevations to near the salt water. Colonel Simmons, one of 

 the earliest settlers in Washington Territory, confirms the statement of the 

 Indians that the show'tl, like the prairie dog, lives in companies. He has 

 frequently seen them sitting at the entrances of their burrows early in the 

 morning, and whistling something in the manner of the prairie dog. Lewis 

 and Clark say that this animal 'mounts a tree and burrows like a squirrel.' 



The statement that it 'mounts a tree' is probably an error I find 



the [sic — lege that] Lewis and Clark's name of Sevvellel for A. leporina is an 

 error. The Chinook name for the animal itself is o-gwool-lal. She-ical-lal 

 (Sewellel, corrupt) is their name for the robe made of its skins." 



Said Dr. Suckley, at the last-quoted pages of the same volume: — 



" .... It is probable that the Aplodontia, like many other rodents, has 

 several litters of young during the season. The Nisqually Indians, in their 

 mythological traditions and obscure stories concerning the creation, say that 

 the show'tl was the first animal created with life. I cannot find out whether 

 they undergo a regular torpid hybernation.! The natives say that they move 

 about a little during the winter, but do not become decidedly active until late in 

 the spring. They live in burrows, in small companies of a dozen or more, 

 and subsist on roots, berries, &c. The Indians say that the show'tl of the 

 Cowlitz river has a white breast and belly. Those at Nisqually, having the 

 under parts dark, are said to retain the same coloration throughout the year. 



"The passage I have italicized— it was iu Roman in the original — is, I think, the first indication 

 of the curious habit in question. 



1 The probability seems to be that they do not. 



