CELEBRATING GROUND-HOG DAY 43 



was half over he was the fattest ground-hog in 

 the region. He had eaten everything in that 

 corner of the garden closest to him. 



During the summer I dug into a number of 

 ground-hog dens. All but one were more than 

 four feet beneath the surface. Each den was 

 about two feet across and more than a foot high. 

 The den was reached by one or more tunnels from 

 the surface. Two of these dens reminded me of 

 a big, four-legged spider; the body was the den 

 and each leg a tunnel to a different place in the 

 surface. 



In digging into these dens I must have moved 

 tons of earth and rocks. One day a prospector 

 asked me if I was after gold. He looked at a 

 number of pieces of mineralized quartz which I 

 had dug out and told me of an experience with 

 ground-hogs. He had found a mine by follow- 

 ing up a piece of gold quartz which a ground- 

 hog had dug out. 



When I asked him about Ground-hog Day he 

 laughed and said that it was a superstition based 

 on the assumption that the ground-hog does 

 come out of his den February second. "But," 

 he said, "there is not a record that he comes 

 out, and I have not been able to find any one 

 who has seen him on this particular day. I 

 have repeatedly watched for ground-hogs Feb- 

 ruary second, but without seeing them or finding 



