54 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



of the locality. The name of Camas Rat is derived from its food, 

 which consists chiefly of the quamash root (Seilla esculentu). 



One or two other burrowing rodents deserve a passing notice. 

 There is the Slepez, or Mole Rat of Asia {Spalax typhlus), an 

 animal which looks very like a mole, though it belongs to the ro- 

 dents. It is even less capable of sight than the mole, for its eyes 

 are not only as small as those of that animal, but are actually cov- 

 ered by the thickly-furred skin. The burrow which it makes is 

 very like that of the Gopher, and consists of a series of tunnels 

 driven through the earth at no great depth from the surface, and 

 from which radiate a vast number of lateral passages. 



The Sand Mole of Southern Africa (Bathyergus maritimus) is 

 another of these shallow burrowers, and by the abundance of its 

 tunnels, and the very trifling depth at which they are driven, ren- 

 ders the ground absolutely dangerous to horsemen. It is rather 

 a large animal, nearly equaling our wild rabbit in dimensions. 

 The fur of the Sand Mole is remarkable for its woolly texture. 



Owing to the peculiar nature of the substance in which the 

 White Bear {Thalarctos maritimus) makes its curious burrows, I 

 have placed it after, instead of before the earth -burrowing rodents. 



We are told by experienced travelers in northern climes that 

 nobody need be frozen to death in the snow. They look upon 

 such a misfortune with a species of contemptuous pity, compas- 

 sionating the victim of cold for his sufferings, but despising him 

 for his ignorance. The aboriginal Australian can not compre- 

 hend how a white man can be so foolish as to die of thirst while 

 there are so many water-bearing vegetables around him ; the abo- 

 riginal American is at a loss to understand how a European can 

 perish of hunger while in the midst of plenty ; and those who 

 have passed much of their lives amid the snow can hardly con- 

 ceive an act of such supreme folly as to be frozen to death while 

 the means of warmth are at hand. 



There is no need of a constitution especially organized or sed- 

 ulously acclimatized to the snow; the benighted traveler who 

 loses himself in the white expanse, with the heavy flakes falling 

 thickly round him, need not possess the hardihood of the high- 

 land "reiver," who cares for no covering save his plaid, and 

 looks upon a snow -pillow as an effeminate luxury. He who 



