58 ZOOLOGY. 



The markings, the motions, and the habits of S. lateralis are very much like those of the 

 striped squirrel, (T. quadrivittatus,} with which it is found. It is, however, more closely confined 

 to the ledges of rock than is any species of Tamias ; indeed,, I never saw it except when on or 

 immediately about piles of trap rock; and its preference for such localities, its unfailing habit of 

 betaking itself to them for refuge when alarmed, and its facility in climbing over large loose 

 rocks, make it decidedly a rock squirrel. 



The specimens which I killed were feeding with the Tamias on the seeds of a large Ceanothus, 

 (C. laevigatus,) and were very fat and well flavored, as I can testify from actual experiment, for 

 we were at that time at a distance from the main party, and entirely out of provisions, except 

 flour and rice, and were glad to get squirrels and trout, though both small, to add to our bill 

 of fare. They were obtained on the upper Des Chutes, in Oregon. 



APLODONTIA LEPORINA, Kich. 



Sewellel. 



BAIRD, Gen. Rep. Mammals, 1857, 353. 



This singular animal, called by Richardson the Sewellel, seems limited to a narrow district when 

 compared with most of those which, with it, inhabit the region it occupies. In Washington Ter 

 ritory it is found from the coast to the Kocky mountains. It is doubtful whether it will be 

 found south of the Columbia, either on the coast range, in the Willamette valley, or on the 

 Cascades. Eastward, however, toward the base of the Rocky mountains, it may occur. I have 

 seen two specimens, one taken near Shoalwater bay, Washington Territory, by Dr. J. Gr. 

 Cooper, and the other obtained near the base of the Rocky mountains, which were absolutely 

 black, presenting a striking difference in color from those obtained by Lewis & Clark, Douglas, 

 and others, which were brown, and of nearly the shade of the muskrat. 



CASTOR CANADENSIS, Kuhl. 



The Beaver. 



BAIRD, Gen. Rep. Mammals, 1857, 355. 



The beaver once inhabited all portions of the globe lying in the northern temperate zone ; 

 yet from England, continental Europe, China, and all the eastern portion of the United States, it 

 has been entirely exterminated, and a war so universal and relentless has been waged upon this 

 defenceless animal, his great intelligence has been so generally opposed by the intelligence of man, 

 that it has seemed certain, unless some kind Providence should interpose, that the Castor, like 

 his gigantic congener, the Castoroides, would soon be found only in a fossil state. Happily, 

 that Providence did interpose, through a certain ingenious somebody who first suggested the 

 use of silk in place of fur, for the covering of hats. The beaver were not yet exterminated 

 from western America ; and now since they are not &quot;worth the killing &quot; in those inhospitable 

 regions where there is no encouragement for American enterprise or cupidity, we may hope that 

 they will always there retain existence in a home exclusively their own, 



In the streams flowing from the Rocky, the Blue, and the Cascade mountains the old 

 &quot;stamping ground&quot; of Bill Williams and that host of Blackfoot-hating, death-defying, &quot;moun 

 tain men,&quot; whose adventures and escapes, half fiction and half fact, cover so broad a page of 

 modern story the sagacious beavers are still numerous ; but it was in the fastnesses of the Cas 

 cades, one hundred and fifty miles south of the Columbia, in the clear, cold streams which, 

 trickling down from the eternal snows, flow, now bright and sparkling, now deep and still, 



