102 MAMMALIA— MOLE. ..BEAR. 



even on the surface of the earth, its movement being the same as when 

 burrowing. 



THE GOPHER MOLE, OR CAMAS RAT. 



This animal is found on the Columbia and Missouri rivers. It lives 

 beneath the surface of the earth, and eats roots. The head appears large 

 and clumsy, owing to its cheek pouches. The root of the camas plant is 

 its favorite food, from which it derives its name. It is said by Schoolcraft, 

 to employ its pouches in carrying dirt out of its hole, and Richardson adopts 

 this account as true ; but an intelligent individual, who has spent much 

 time in the country which it frequents, assures us that he has often seen 

 the gopher at work, and that it brings up the dirt with its broad feet. 

 The quantity that it will throw out in a short space of time, is truly 

 astonishing. 



FAMILY II. — C ARNIVOR A. 



These animals have six incisors in each jaw ; molars generally edged ; 

 sometimes tuberculous, never rough, with pointed tubercles on their crown ; 

 canines very strong. 



THE BROWN BEAR.* 



The bear is not only a savage, but a solitary animal ; he takes refuge in 

 the most unfrequented parts, and the most dangerous precipices of uninhab- 

 ited mountains. He chooses his den in the most gloomy parts of the forest, 

 in some cavern that has been hollowed by time, or in the hollow of some 

 enormous old tree. Thither he retires alone, and passes a part of the win- 

 ter without provisions, or without ever stirring abroad. He is not, however, 

 entirely deprived of sensation, like the dormouse or the marmot, but seems 

 rather to subsist upon the exuberance of his former flesh, and only feels the 

 calls of appetite when the fat he had acquired in summer begins to be con- 

 siderably wasted. 



When this happens, which we are told it generally does at the expiration 

 of forty or fifty days, the male forsakes his den ; but the female remains 



confined for four months, by which time she has brought forth her young. 



• 



1 Ursus arctos. The genus Ursus has six upper and six lower incisors ; two upper 

 and two lower canines ; four to seven upper, and the same number of lower molars. In- 

 cisors cf the lower jaw on the same line ; posterior molars very strong, with a square crown 

 and blunt tubercles; feet pentadactyle, armed with strong nails; body thick; tail short; 

 mammae six ; two pectoral and four ventral. 



