116 SQUIRRELS AND OTHER FUR-BEARERS 



it ; tunnels and highways running and winding 

 in every direction and connecting the nests of 

 dry grass, which might stand for the cities and 

 towns on the map. These runways are smooth 

 and round like pipes, and only a little larger 

 than the bodies of the mice. I think it is only 

 the meadow field-mouse that lives in this way 

 beneath the snow. 



I met one of these mice in my travels one day 

 under peculiar conditions. He was on his travels 

 also, and we met in the middle of a mountain 

 lake. I was casting my fly there, when I saw, 

 just sketched or etched upon the glassy surface, 

 a delicate V-shaped figure, the point of which 

 reached about to the middle of the lake, while 

 the two sides, as they diverged, faded out toward 

 the shore. I saw the point of this V was being 

 slowly pushed across the lake. I drew near in 

 my boat, and beheld a little mouse swimming 

 vigorously for the opposite shore. His little 

 legs appeared like swiftly revolving wheels be- 

 neath him. As I came near, he dived under 

 the water to escape me, but came up again like 

 a cork and just as quickly. It was laughable to 

 see him repeatedly duck beneath the surface and 

 pop back again in a twinkling. He could not 

 keep under water more than a second or two. 

 Presently I reached him my oar, when he ran up 



