284 EXPLORATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 



could tell exactly what the salamander does at the instant he appeared, his 

 motions being so quick that one cannot be quite sure; the general impression, 

 however, is, that they are unloading their cheek-pouches. This is not at all 

 improbable, for we know that they carry their food in these receptacles, and 

 it seems a very natural way for them to bring their refuse sand to the surface, 

 since they often have to transport it a distance of several feet. Still it is- 

 quite desirable to have other and more careful observations; for observers are 

 apt to be deceived by their own eyes, especially in the light of preconceived 

 opinions. 



The subterranean labyrinth constructed by this clever army of sappers 

 and miners penetrates the pine-barrens and cultivated fields in every direction. 

 An energetic salamander, with a slight knowledge of engineering, would find 

 little difficulty, I suspect, in making an underground journey through Florida 

 from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico. The direction of the burrows may 

 easily be traced by the loose hillocks of white sand which are thrown up 

 along the line at intervals of three or four feet. These are the "dumps'' 

 made by the burrower in throwing out his refuse accumulations. Each con- 

 sists of about a peck of loose sand, and, by the casual observer, might easily 

 be mistaken for an ant-hill. No opening is visible, but by digging under the 

 hill a hole is found, the mouth of the adit to the main tunnel, which may be 

 three feet below the surface if made in cold weather, but perhaps not more 

 than six inches if in summer. One of these mounds is thrown up in a very 

 few moments ; I have seen thirty raised in a single night on the line of one 

 tunnel; this would represent nearly one hundred feet of tunneling. I have 

 seen one hundred and fifty in one continuous row raised in about two days ; 

 this would make between four and five hundred feet of burrow completed in 

 that short time apparently by one little animal, an amount of work which may 

 seem incredible to one who has not watched the restless movements of these 

 animated plows, which are seemingly as well adapted for piercing the sand as 

 birds are for cleaving the air. The burrows are about two and one -half inches 

 in diameter, barely large enough to admit a man's hand, and, as has been 

 stated, are at various depths below the surface. They meander in all direc- 

 tions, except in straight lines; their builders being guided apparently only by 

 their whims or their olfactories. They, no doubt, intersecl each other at many 



