GNAWED CARIBOO HORNS. 



1 SHOULD think it extremely likely that the 

 cariboo horns, mentioned by your correspondent, 

 "Wanderer," in LAND AND WATER, were gnawed 

 by musk rats, or by some rodent, having an 

 affinity to our British water-vole (Arvicola am- 

 phibia), as in many of the caverns containing 

 fossil remains of mammalia marks of teeth are 

 found on the bones, which I was kindly informed 

 by Mr. Busk, were in many cases those of the 

 vole. I have also myself tried the experiment 

 of placing bones in the vicinity of a stream fre- 

 quented by water-voles, and found that they often 

 gnawed them, though generally considered by 

 naturalists of the present day to be exclusively 

 vegetarian in diet. I took particular care, however, 

 to ascertain, in this case, that the voles, and not the 

 brown rats, gnawed the bones, and have seen them 

 myself in the act. I should also think it unlikely 

 that hares gnawed deer horns, and that, on examina- 

 tion, the tooth marks will be found to be those of 

 the musk-rat. If such be the case, it will prove an 

 interesting similarity in habits between that animal 

 and the water-vole. 



