A TRUFFLE-HUNTER 227 



it as to its contents, exactly as does the truffle-gatherer's 

 dog. The sense of smell warns it that the desired 

 object is beneath it, covered by a few inches of sand. 

 Certain of the precise point where the treasure lies, 

 it sinks a well vertically downwards, and infallibly 

 reaches it. So long as there is food left it does not 

 again leave the burrow. It feasts happily at the 

 bottom of its well, heedless of the open or imperfectly 

 closed burrow. 



When no more food is left it removes in search of 

 further booty, which becomes the occasion of another 

 burrow, this too in its turn to be abandoned. So 

 many truffles eaten necessitate so many burrows, which 

 are mere dining-rooms or pilgrim's larders. Thus 

 pass the autumn and the spring, the seasons of the 

 Hydnocystis, in the pleasures of the table and removal 

 from one house to another. 



To study the insect rabassier in my own house I 

 had to obtain a small store of its favourite food. To 

 seek it myself, by digging at random, would have resulted 

 merely in waste of time ; the little cryptogam is not 

 so common that I could hope to find it without a 

 guide. The truffle-hunter must have his dog ; my 

 guide should be the Bolboceras itself. Behold me, 

 then, a rabassier of a kind hitherto unknown. I have 

 told my secret, although I fear my original teacher 

 will laugh at me if he ever hears of my singular form 

 of competition. 



The subterranean fungi grow only at certain points, 

 but they are often found in groups. Now, the beetle 

 has passed this way ; with its subtle sense of smell 

 it has recognised the ground as favourable ; for it* 



