FERTILITY OF LAND IN THE NORTH-WEST. 161 
during wet summers. In such seasons the moles would burrow in lands which had 
been too dry for them when the opposite conditions prevailed. 
It is difficult to estimate when this process began, but it must have been long ago, 
and over much of the country it is carried on every autumn, although in some parts, as 
we have seen, it is only resumed at intervals of a few years. Were it not for this con- 
stant renewal of the supply by the covering over of the vegetation through the repeated 
digging of the moles, ete., the organic matter, which is being constantly oxidized and 
destroyed, would in time disappear entirely out of the soil, and the whole country 
become comparatively barren. 
Moles are scarce or absent on the elevated, hard and stony portions of the third 
steppe, such as the Grand Coteau du Missouri, and much of the great plain between the 
north and south branch of the Saskatchewan, and also on the stiff clays of the south 
branch and the upper Qu’Appelle. They are most abundant in what is called the prairie- 
country (as distinguished from the naked plains), such as the great belt between the 
wooded region of the north-east and the open plains to the south-west, and again along a 
belt east of the Rocky Mountains, and parallel to their course. These are the regions 
which embrace the most fertile lands of the second and third steppes. 
The labour of the moles in thus improving the land is supplemented by that of the 
gophers, spermophiles or ground-squirrels, and in some sections by that of the badgers. 
The last-named animals do a rough kind of work. They dig deeply into the ground, and 
in gravelly or stoney tracts throw up large quantities of the coarse subsoil over the top of 
the vegetable mould, apparently doing more harm than good in such cases, unless we 
consider their work as a sort of sub-soil ploughing, or first step in the process of deepen- 
ing the soil-stratum. For, in the course of time, the moles will bury the stones thrown out 
by the badgers, and mingle the finer material of these heaps of subsoil with the vegetable 
mould which they originally covered. Except in wet places, or where the ground is too 
hard and dry, the prairies are riddled with great numbers of badger-holes, which seriously 
interfere with riding or driving across them. Even the well-travelled trails are at 
intervals so undermined and honey-combed with fresh badger-burrows that it becomes 
necessary to turn aside and go around them. Where the subsoil is fine, as in the yel- 
lowish sandy and clayey loam, which prevails in some parts, the burrowing of the badgers 
is directly beneficial in increasing the depth of the soil, without the intervention of the 
moles. This is the case, for instance, in Prince Albert settlement, where, although the 
badgers are now exterminated, their earth-heaps are everywhere visible, even in the streets 
of the town. 
In the vertical sections of the soil which may be observed in various parts of the 
territories, the remains of ancient badger-holes may be seen in the abrupt depressions in 
the line of the subsoil, now filled with black vegetable mould. In connection with the 
subject of the burying of vegetable matter by the various animals I have referred to, it 
may be mentioned moreover that quantities of grass and leaves fall into their burrows, 
and are also carried deeper into them by some of the animals for making their nests, and 
that when the burrows break down, this vegetable matter decays and contributes to the 
formation of the soil. 
A circumstance that greatly aids the process of enrichment of the land which has 
Sec. IV., 1883, 21, 
