1892.] DR. J. ANDERSON ON SPALAX TYPHLUS. 473 



proper the Mariut district consists of low rounded hills, that form a 

 barrier between the lake and the sea. They are, however, of no 

 great height, as the highest eminence does not rise probably more 

 than 80 feet above the sea-level. On the gentle slopes rising from 

 the lake, on the small plains, and in the hollows in the undulations, 

 the Bedouins who form the greater part of the sparse population 

 sow their crops, chiefly barley, trusting to the very meagre and 

 uncertain rainfall of winter and spring for the irrigation of the land. 

 If there is a moderate rainfall, the entire area, I am informed, 

 presents in spring a beautifully green and comparatively luxuriant 

 appearance, being covered with various flowering plants, among 

 which Asphodels and Hyacinths abound, and by the crops of the 

 Bedouins, which afi'ord these people a fair return under such con- 

 ditions. However, I was not favoured with such a pleasing scene 

 during my visits, as everything was dried up, the rainfall of the past 

 winter and of this spring being remarkedly deficient. 



"On my excursion we met an Arab working in his stunted barley- 

 field, and on questioning him about the different kinds of animals 

 found in the district, he mentioned one which he said was completely 

 blind and that burrowed on the higher ground and threw up mounds 

 of earth, the character of which he illustrated by taking a handful 

 of soil and dropping it into little heaps resembling mole-hills. I 

 was at first incredulous and told him that in order to convince me 

 of its presence it would be necessary for him to sliow me one, and 

 I promised him 10 francs for the first he should bring alive to 

 Alexandria. Two days afterwards he appeared at Abbatts Hotel 

 with one in a strong canvas bag, which when opened was found to 

 contain an animal certainly blind, as no external trace of eyes could 

 be detected, the area which the eye should have occupied being en- 

 tirely covered with skin and fur. 



" I appointed a day on which to return to Mariut, and arranged with 

 him that he should meet me near his village, and that we should dig 

 out the animal together, he having previously sought out a place in 

 which he had satisfied himself the animal was to be found. 



'• On meeting him on the day appointed, he led me to a little level 

 flat, on the upper margin of a barley-field, and approaching it care- 

 fully he stopped short and pointed out a small hole he had dug and 

 in which fresh earth had recently been thrown up, as if by a mole. 

 In making the hole he had cut through two of the passages of the 

 burrower, and he knew that in leaving them exposed the animal, if 

 it were in either of them, would close the one in which it happened 

 to be by throwing out earth, that would be more moist than the 

 surrounding soil and thus indicate its presence. Having thus 

 satisfied me that an animal was in this spot, he led me higher up to 

 another and still larger level expanse covered with little mounds 

 and with the dried stalks of Asphodels. Here, again, he had 

 taken the same precaution to find out the whereabouts of the 

 burrower. Selecting one passage we commenced to dig, but we 

 had not proceeded far when we found that it gave off secondary 

 tunnels, which had to be dug up to their blind extremities. As some 

 of these passages were nearly 30 to 40 yards long, the work of 



