LO< MAMMALIA—MOLE...BEAR. 
even on the surface of the earth, its movement being the same as when 
burrowing. 
THE GOPHER MOLE, OR CAMAS RAT. 
Ts animal is found on the Columbia and Missouri rivers. It lives 
beneath the surface of the earth, and eats roots. The head appears large 
and clumsy, owing to its cheek pouches. The root of the camas plant is 
its favorite food, from which it derives its name. It is said by Schoo.craft, 
to employ its pouches in carrying dirt out of its hole, and Richardson adopts 
this account as true; but an intelligent individual, who has spent much 
time in the country which it frequents, assures us that he has often seen 
the gopher at work, and that it brings up the dirt with its broad feet. 
The quantity that it will throw out in a short space of time, is trulv 
astonishing. 
FAMILY “Li-CARNTVORA. 
THESE animals have six incisors in each jaw;.molars generally edged ; 
sometimes tuberculous, never rough, with pointed ‘tubercles on their crown; 
canines very strong. . 
THE BROWN BEAR. 
Tue bear is not only a savage, but a solitary arlimal; he takes refuge in 
the most unfrequented parts, and the most dangerous precipices of uninhab- 
ited mountains. He chooses his den in the most gloomy parts of the forest, 
in some cavern that has been hollowed by time, or in the hollow of- some 
enormous old tree. Thither he retires alone, and passes a part of the win- 
ter without provisions, or without ever stirring abroad. He is not, however, 
entirely deprived of sensation, like the dormouse or the marmot, but seems 
rather to subsist upon the exuberance of his former flesh, and only feels the 
calls of appetite when the fat he had acquired in summer begins to be con- 
siderably wasted, 
When this happens, which we are told it generally does at the expiration 
of forty or fifty days, the male forsakes his den; but the female remains 
confined for four months, by which time she has breught forth her young. 
I a a 
1 Ursus arctos. The, genus Ursus has six upper and six lower incisors; two upper 
and two lower canines ; fowr to seven upper, and the same number of lower molars. In- 
eisors of the lower jaw on the same line;, posterior molars very strong, with a square crown 
and blunt tubercles; feet pentadactyle, armed with strong nails; body thick; tail short; 
mamme six; two pectoral and four ventral. 
