WHAT WERE GRAETPS BALLS'} 55 



whistling, for which, at first, they find it difficult to account. 

 It is the young marmot's cry of alarm ; for the old appear to 

 be deprived of this strident faculty. 



For a considerable period only a single species was known 

 the marmot properly so called (Arctomys marmotta, Gmelin) ; 

 but four others must now be added : ist, The marmot of the 

 Caucasus (Arctomys musicus\ still imperfectly known ; 2d, The 

 marmot of Canada (Arctomys empetrd), who clambers up the 

 trees like a cat, and is distributed throughout all North 

 America, particularly in Hudson's Bay, and Alaska, on the 

 north-west coast j 3d, The Arctomys monax, who appears to be 

 peculiar to Maryland ; 4th, The Russian marmot (Arctomys tit- 

 illus\ of the size of a field-mouse, and of a brown colour, 

 spotted with white; 5th, The marmot of Siberia (Arctomys 

 bobac\ smaller than the common species, of a yellow gray, and 

 building vast burrows shaped like a funnel. 



Will the reader permit us an allusion, in passing, to a ques- 

 tion which we do not see discussed in books of natural 

 history ? Formerly among the treasures of ancient druggists 

 figured a kind of panacea, called "Graetz's balls." What 

 were these " Graetz's balls," at one time esteemed as a uni- 

 versal medicine, but no longer included in our pharmacopeia ? 



This was their origin : The subterranean dwellings which 

 certain species of marmots construct with so much skill, are 

 each composed of two galleries, which unite together like the 

 arms of a Y, and terminate in a cul-de-sac. There are found 

 the globules of clay known as "Graetz's balls." They are 

 an industrial product of our rodents, as M. Oscar Schmidt 



