HAPLODONTID ®—HISTORY AND HABITS OF H. RUFUS. 597 
Suckley.) .... This animal burrows extensively in the ground. It chiefly 
frequents spring heads in rich moist places, and is found as far up as the 
dividing ridge of the Cascade mountains, and on both sides of the divide. I 
noticed their burrows in 1853 at the top of the main Yakima pass. eur their 
abodes were small bundles of some herb or plant cut with nicet y and laid out on 
logs to dry or wilt.* "The Indians trap them, and value their meat very much 
as food.” 
On subsequent pages of the same volume (pp. 124-126), Mr. Gibbs 
continued :— 
“T noticed burrows of the show’tl in 1853, at the top of the main Yakima 
Pass, in the Cascade mountains, at an elevation of 3,500 feet, and again in 
1854, at the Nahchess Pass in the same mountains. .... The Yakima 
Indians call it Sguad/ah. Its range in the Territory is quite extensive, from 
high mountain elevations to near the salt water. Colonel Simmons, one of 
the earliest settlers in Washington Territory, confirms the statement of the 
Indians that the show’tl, like the prairie dog, lives in companies. He has 
frequently seen them sitting at the entrances of their burrows early in the 
morning, and whistling something in the manner of the prairie dog. Lewis 
and Clark say that this animal ‘mounts a tree and burrows like a squirrel. 
The statement that it ‘mounts a tree’ is probably an error. .... I find 
the [sic—lege that] Lewis and Clark’s name of Sewellel for A. deporina is an 
error. The Chinook name for the animal itself is 0-gwool-lal. She-wail-lal 
(Sewel/el, corrupt) is their name for the robe made of its skins.” 
Said Dr. Suckley, at the last-quoted pages of the same volume :— 
“ . .. It is probable that the Aplodontia, like many other rodents, has 
several litters of young during the season. The Nisqually Indians, in their 
_ mythological traditions and obscure stories concerning the creation, say that 
the show’t] was the first animal created with life. 1 cannot find out whether 
they undergo a regular torpid hybernation.| The natives say that they move 
about a little during the winter, but do not become decidedly active until late in 
- the spring. They live in burrows, in small companies of a dozen or more, 
and subsist on roots, berries, &c. The Indians say that the show’tl of the 
Cowlitz river has a white breast and belly. Those at Nisqually, having the 
under parts dark, are said to retain the same coloration throughout the year. 
*The passage I have italicized—it was in Roman in the original—is, I think, the first indication 
of the curious habit in question. 
+The probability seems to be that they do not. 
