450 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



fensive to the nose and the farm-yard, but its bite is often 

 attended with fatal results, the symptoms it produces being 

 similar to those attending an attack of hydrophobia. 



TUB BADGER. 



The badger is so common in some portions of the West 

 that its burrows cover a large area of country; and it is so 

 numerous that it is dangerous to gallop a horse in some 

 places. As this animal seldom travels abroad in the day- 

 time, it is a rare thing to see one; but should a person 

 meet it accidentally, and try to head it off from its burrow, 

 it would probably pay no heed to his presence, and attempt 

 to enter, nolens volens, though he might keep kicking it. 



I have routed it out sometimes with terriers, and some- 

 times by pouring water into its burrow; but as a game or 

 a fur animaH could not see much in it to make its pursuit 

 pleasant; though it may be profitable to trap, as its fur is 

 in active demand for making the cheaper class of goods. 

 It is usually caught with a No. 3 trap. This animal roams 

 to a high altitude on the mountains, often to a height of 

 seven or eight thousand feet, but its favorite habitat is the 

 treeless plains, where ground-squirrels are abundant. 



The land-otter is increasing in numbers in some of the 

 regions bordering the Pacific Ocean, owing to the cessa- 

 tion there of trapping, at least to any extent; but it is 

 rapidly decreasing in other sections of the country, es- 



