WHAT USE IS THE OU-KA-LA? 357 
four trap, set at the mouth of the burrow. I 
daresay they are as good as a rabbit; still, they 
have too ratlike an appearance to possess any gas- 
tronomic attractions for me. De gustibus non 
est disputandum. 
The Aplodontia has a terrible and untiring 
enemy in the badger (Zaxidea Americana). He 
is always on the hunt for the poor little miner, 
digs him out from his hiding-place, and devours 
him with as much gusto as the Indian. Its geo- 
graphical range is not very extended, being, as 
far as I know, confined to a small section of North- 
western America. I have seen it on the eastern 
and western slopes of the Cascades, but not on 
the Rocky Mountains, although it very probably 
exists there. It is also found at Puget’s Sound, 
Fort Steilacum, and on the banks of the Sumass 
and Chilukweyuk rivers, west of the Cascades; on 
the Nachess Pass, at Astoria and the Dalles, on 
the Columbia, east of the Cascades. 
Feeding entirely on vegetable matter (I never 
discovered a trace of insect or larve remains in 
the stomach), passing its life principally in dark 
burrows, and limited, as far as we know at pre- 
sent, to a very narrow section of a barren 
country, it is hard to imagine what purpose it 
serves in the great chain of Nature, save it be that 
