OLD* MISSOURI DAYS 171 



four miles. It was a river journey. The steamers were 

 slow, running some sixty miles a day. The boats stopped on 

 the way on a part of this journey to enable the wood-chop- 

 pers to cut wood for the furnaces, for wood in some ports 

 of the rivers was not then offered for sale as afterward. 

 They reached St. Louis in the middle of April, and there 

 began the study of pouched rats, or gophers, sometimes 

 called " prairie-dogs." 



His experience with the prairie-dogs was a novel one, 

 and represents his methods of the study of curious animals. 

 He says: 



" The four which I kept alive never drank anything, 

 though water was given them. I fed them on potatoes, 

 cabbages, carrots, etc. They tried constantly to make their 

 escape by gnawing at the floor, but in vain. They slept 

 wherever they found clothing, etc., and the rascals cut 

 the lining of my hunting-coat all to bits, so that I was 

 obliged to have it patched and mended. In one instance 

 I had some clothes rolled up for the washerwoman, and, 

 on opening the bundle to count the pieces, one of the fel- 

 lows caught hold of my right thumb, with fortunately a 

 single one of its upper incisors, and hung on till I shook 

 it off, violently throwing it on the floor, where it lay as if 

 dead; but it recovered, and was as well as ever in less than 

 half an hour. They gnawed the leather straps of my trunks 

 during the night, and although I rose frequently to stop 

 their work, they would begin anew as soon as I was in bed 



