'■1 ; v 



51)6 



MONOGRAPHS OP NORTH AMERICAN RODBNTIA. 



Dr. J. G. Cooper's notice, in the second part of the xii. volume of the 

 Pacific Ilnilroad Reports,* was as follows: — 



"The 'Seweliel' of Lewis & Clark, appears to be an abundant animal 

 in some districts west of the Cascade mountains, but from various causes I 

 never conld obtain a specimen. At the time, of their visit to the country the ' 

 Indians used the skins as clothing, and as it required a large number of skins 

 to make nn ordinary sized blanket, the numbers of the animals caught must 

 have been great. It was caught by stone fall-traps, but with what bait I do 

 not know, probably some root. The Indians assured me that none were found 

 nearer to the coast than the Cowlitz valley, but as they have been obtained 

 at Astoria, the statement was not altogether correct. They seem to prefer 

 the soft alluvial river bottoms, where they are said to burrow, and probably 

 thus follow down the Columbia. Now they are rarely caught by the Indians, 

 as their skins are not bought by the Hudson's Bay Company, except when 

 passed off on a 'green' clerk as muskrat skins. Of their habits I could learn 

 little. An old Indian hunter, who is row a shepherd in the employ of Dr. 

 Tolmie at Puget's Sound, told iiim that he had frequently seen them rumiing 

 over the snow in the Nisqually Valley, so that they probably do not hyber- 

 nate. A young man who had kept scliool at Astoria told me that the children 

 sometimes caught them about the schoolhouse, where they burrowed, and 

 that they could be caught by running after Ihem, as they did not lun fast. 

 When taken they did not offer to bite, and ale vegetable food readily. The 

 specimen sent from there was found drowned in a tanner's vat." 



The same volume from which Dr. Cooper's above-quoted observation*) 

 were extracted contained a variety of further information, contributed by 

 T)r. George Suckley, well known for his natural-iiistory studies of Oregon and 

 Washington, and b]^ George Gibbs, Esq., the distinguished ethnographer and 

 philologist. Among other items of their respective accounts may be specially 

 noted Mr. Gibbs's determination of the inapplicability of the name "Sewellel" 

 to this animal, and his observation of its curious habit of laying out its pro- 

 visions to dry. Mr. Gibbs, as quoted by Dr. Suckley (p. 100 of the volume 

 referred to), said : — 



"The specimen I send you was obtained at Seattle, where it was killed 

 in a garden. Its name, in the Nisqually language, is Showt'l. (Showfiurll,\ 



' RepubUsbiKl as the " Nntaral History uf WasbiDdtim Territory ". 



\" 8hDWk»rll" — ths, Id tbe original, wbicb I suppooe to be » typograpbioal error for an intended 

 SiotckurU. • 



