CHAP. XXXVIII.] BALL -POLLING BEETLES. 329 



the weight of its body made the mass fall over, the 

 other pushing behind, so as to urge it forwards, or at 

 least prevent it from rolling back again. We saw 

 two of them in half a minute force a ball for a dis 

 tance of eighteen inches up a gentle slope, and when 

 they reached a soft part of the road, one of them be 

 gan to excavate a hole, and soon entirely disappeared 

 under ground, heaving up the earth till it cracked 

 and opened wide enough to allow his companion to 

 push the ball of dung into it. The round mass im 

 mediately began to sink, and in a few minutes was 

 out of sight. We saw another pair try in vain to 

 bury their treasure, for they had selected a spot where 

 the soil was too hard ; at last they gave up the at 

 tempt, and, rolling it away, set out in search of a more 

 favourable spot. 



We crossed several ploughed fields on the slope of 

 ihe hills which descend towards the Potomac, where a 

 singular kind of manure is used, consisting of dead 

 fish, and almost exclusively of the bony pike, or gar 

 fish (Lepidosteus oxyurus). The hard stony scales 

 resist decomposition for several years. The fisher 

 men told us that they are greatly annoyed by con 

 stantly taking these pikes in their nets with the 

 herrings. There is so enormous an abundance of 



o 



herrings in some spots in this estuary, that 50,000 

 have sometimes been taken this season in a few 

 hours. 



In a marsh near the inn, we observed numerous 

 habitations of the musk-rat, standing up like hay 

 cocks. When the small size of the animal is consi 

 dered, the quantity of dried grass, reeds, and rushes 



