1-S7.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 175 



"Blue Miiskrat," the names Mountain Boomer, Showt'l and Sewelltrl 

 not being- in use there. Mr. J. B. Campbell, of Shasta County, told mo 

 of finding peculiar animals in his traps once while trapping on Mouui 

 Shasta, and his description of them was such as to leave no doubt as to 

 their identity. Subsequently when on Mount Shasta I was unable to 

 find the exact locality where the animals abounded, but met with their 

 burrows at Mount Lassen the following summer (188i). While passing 

 rapidly through the latter region 1 obtained evidence of the existence 

 of some species of the genus llaplodon near Morgan's Springs, on the 

 headwaters of Mill Creek, and while at Big Meadows, on the north fork 

 of Feather Eiver, was shown burrows said to be inhabited by the 

 " mountain beaver." These burrows were in a wihl gorge, deep anu 

 narrow, down which the little river dashed with roar and foam. In 

 certain i^laces, where for a short distance moist, clayey banks took the 

 place cf the interminable fallen trunks and bowlders, were numerous 

 holes, somewhat resembling those made by muskrats, and near them 

 were scattered bunches of freshly cut weeds and coarse grasses. Some 

 of the green herbs were dragged partially into the mouths of the bur- 

 rows, and if the aniuial itself had not been readily recognizable from 

 my informant's description, it could doubtless have been identified from 

 this singular habit of cutting herbs and laying them out to dry, as de- 

 scribed in Vol. IX of the Pacific Eailroad Eeports. As I was con)i)elled 

 by force of circumstances to leave there the next day, spc^-'^jiens, un^ 

 fortunately, could not be obtained. The altitudes of these two localities 

 were each a little over 5,000 feet. 



Family CASTORID^E. Beavers. 



Castor fiber Liund. Beaver. 



Kather common along the wilder streams of the region, such as the 

 Upper Sacramento and the McCloud Eivers. At the western base of 

 Mount Shasta a number of them occupied unmolested a dam, vrhich they 

 had constructed in a corner of a meadow belonging to Mr. <J. H. Sisson. 



Beaver skins are worth from $3 to $5 in j::«rorthern California, but trap- 

 ping in general is not much practiced now. This animal is called Ccl-tet 

 by the Indians of McCloud Eiver. 



Family MURID/E. Mice. 

 Arvicola austerus citrtatus Cope. Western Prairie Mouse. 



Collected at Fort Crook by Capt. John Feiliu'r: not represented in 

 my collection. 



