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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



White-Foot's Dining Room. 



BY H. W. WEISGERBER, SALEM, OHIO. 



I wonder how many people have 

 been puzzled by the wild cherry and 

 dogwood pits or the various seeds that 

 are often found in old birds' nests, hol- 

 low fence rails, knot holes and in other 



rest of the day. The next day the lake 

 was rough and we could not decide 

 whether it repeated its conduct or not. 

 When the water is quiet it will rise and 

 fall for from one to five inches. From 

 one "high tide" till the next is about 

 thirty-five minutes. We have noticed this 



DINING ROOM OF \\'HITE-FOOTED MOUSE. 



out of the way places that have had, as 

 shown in the picture, their kernel ex- 

 tracted. 



The hollow maple limb of the fallen 

 tree shown in the picture was only the 

 dining room of a white-footed mouse. 



While white-foot is nocturnal in his 

 habits, he still uses considerable dis- 

 cretion while feeding, for owls are gen- 

 erally about and ready for the dainty 

 morsel that his small body would give 

 them. And while he must gather his 

 food in the open, he is very careful and 

 carries it to a place where he can eat it 

 at his leisure without being disturbed 

 by any sudden surprise of an enemy 

 swooping down upon him. 



A Lake's Remarkable Action. 



Summerland, British Cohimliia, Canada. 

 To the Editor : 



Okanagan Lake in British Columbia is 

 about seventy-five miles long, from one to 

 three miles wide and very deep. W^e live 

 about fifteen miles from the south end. 



One day as we were sitting on the beach 

 we noticed that the lake was rising. It 

 rose for about three inches, went down, 

 came up again and thus continued for the 



for several years. We shall be glad if you 

 will explain it. 



F. H. Van Hise. 



The phenomenon referred to has been 

 noted on many of the lakes of the world 

 and has been described by a number of 

 scientific men. 



The oscillation has been generally as- 

 cribed to dififering barometric pressure in 

 dififerent parts of the lake. Geikie's Text- 

 book of Geology says, — 



"The water of many lakes has been ob- 

 served to rise above its normal level for 

 a few minutes or for more than an hour 

 and then to descend beneath that level, 

 and to continue this vibration for some 

 time. In the Lake of Geneva, where 

 these movements, locally known there as 

 SeicJies, have long been noticed, the am- 

 plitude of the oscellation ranges up to a 

 metre or even sometimes to two metres. 

 These disturbances may sometimes be due 

 to subterranean movements ; but probably 

 they are mainly the effect of atmospheric 

 perturbations, and, in particular, of local 

 storms with a vertical descending move- 

 ment."- — William Mclnnes, Directing 

 Geologist, Canada Geolog^ical Survey. 



