WHAT USE IS THE OU-KA-LA? 357 



four trap, set at the mouth of the burrow. I 

 daresay they are as good as a rabbit; still, they 

 have too ratlike an appearance to possess any gas- 

 tronomic attractions for me. De gustibus non 

 est disputandum. 



The Aplodontia has a terrible and untiring 

 enemy in the badger (Taxidea Americana). He 

 is always on the hunt for the poor little miner, 

 digs him out from his hiding-place, and devours 

 him wich as much gusto as the Indian. Its geo- 

 graphical range is not very extended, being, as 

 f?, A - as I know, confined to a small section of North- 

 western America. I have seen it on the eastern 

 and western slopes of the Cascades, but not on 

 the Rocky Mountains, although it very probably 

 exists there. It is also found at Puget's Sound, 

 Fort Steilacum, and on the banks of the Sumass 

 and Chilukweyuk rivers, west of the Cascades ; on 

 the Nachess Pass, at Astoria and the Dalles, on 

 the Columbia, east of the Cascades. 



Feeding entirely on vegetable matter (I never 

 discovered a trace of insect or larvae remains in 

 the stomach), passing its life principally in dark 

 burrows, and limited, as far as we know at pre- 

 sent, to a very narrow section of a barren 

 country, it is hard to imagine what purpose it 

 serves in the great chain of Nature, save it be that 



