202 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



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 ing of the Sierra animals. The last Neotoma 



is scarcely at all like the common rat, is nearly 

 twice as large, has a delicate, soft, brownish fur, 

 white on the belly, large ears thin and trans- 

 lucent, eyes full and liquid and mild in ex- 

 pression, nose blunt and squirrelish, slender 

 claws sharp as needles, and as his limbs are 

 strong he can climb about as well as a squirrel ; 

 while no rat or squirrel has so innocent a look, 

 is so easily approached, or in general expresses 

 so much confidence in one's good intentions. 

 He seems too fine for the thorny thickets he in- 

 habits, and his big, rough hut is as unlike him- 

 self as possible. No other animal in these 

 mountains makes nests so large and striking in 

 appearance as his. They are built of all kinds 

 of sticks (broken branches, and old rotten moss- 

 grown chunks and green twigs, smooth or 

 thorny, cut from the nearest bushes), mixed with 

 miscellaneous rubbish and curious odds and ends, 

 — bits of cloddy earth, stones, bones, bits of 

 deer-horn, etc. : the whole simply piled in conical 

 masses on the ground in chaparral thickets. 

 Some of these cabins are five or six feet high, 

 and occasionally a dozen or more are grouped 

 together; less, perhaps, for society's sake than 

 for advantages of food and shelter. 



Coming through deep, stiff chaparral in the 

 heart of the wilderness, heated and weary in 

 forcing a way, the solitary explorer, happening 



