38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



turtles and tortoises, wHch is fitted for grasping prey and not 

 at all specialized for use as a shovel or digging instrument. 

 A very slight examination of the sandy woodlands which are 

 principally occupied by this creature will, however, convince the 

 observer that the gopher, though selective processes have not 

 helped him in his arduous task, is by dint of sheer strength and 

 admirable persistency capable of doing work of singular mag- 

 nitude. 



The traveler in Florida may notice even from the windows of 

 the railway-train that all over the surface of the soil in the pine- 

 woods lie little heaps of sand which contain about one half a 

 cubic foot of material which has been thrown upon the surface 

 since the last period of rains. Sometimes there are only a dozen 

 or two of these heaps to the acre, but they often amount to as 

 many as two hundred or more in that area. Where they are few 

 in number, we may remark that they are distributed in a tortu- 

 ous line. Where they are very plenty, these tortuous lines inter- 

 sect each other in such varied directions that no order in the 

 distribution of the hillocks is discernible. Closer observation 

 will show that these heaps are thrown out upon the burrows 

 formed by the gophers. At first it might be supposed that they 

 represented the points of entrance or exit of the subterranean 

 passages, for it seems possible that the soft sand has fallen down 

 over the opening so as to conceal its original position, and thus 

 give the accumulation the aspect of a mere heap ; but if the stu- 

 dent takes pains to dig down into these little mounds, he will find 

 that they do not communicate directly with the burrows. It is 

 .generally impossible to trace in the loose sand the manner in 

 which they have been thrust up to the surface. 



A little careful searching will show the way in which these 

 curious mounds have been formed. Here and there, but rarely 

 perhaps in one amid a hundred of these mounds, we find the place 

 where the reptile entered the ground. This opening is at once 

 seen to be quite separate in character from the mounds which 

 first attract the eye. It consists of a clearly defined tunnel, the 

 sides commonly somewhat smooth and compacted by the energy 

 with which the body of the creature has been driven through it. 

 The passage inclines steeply downward, descending at the outset 

 at an angle of from 20° to 30°, then turning at the depth of two 

 or three feet to a more horizontal position. On the surface, a lit- 

 tle beyond this entrance, is a heap of debris, which consists of the 

 sand taken from the passage. A few feet in from the opening, 

 the passage appears to be closed by loose material which was not 

 ejected from the mouth of the tunnel. Although I have been un- 

 able to catch these tortoises at work, I have succeeded by tolerably 

 safe inferences in tracing their method of operation. When they 



