1878. ] The Sewellel or Show tl. II 
country forming an elevated bench some two thousand feet above 
the level of the sea, and lying along the western base of the Cas- 
cade Mountains. It is semi-aquatic in its nature, and its haunts 
will always be found where veins of water beneath the surface of 
the ground are abundant. It usually selects the open glades of 
the forest, thickly grown up with fern and sallal (Gaultheria 
shalon). It is emphatically a burrowing animal, and here the 
ground will be seen perforated with holes. Generally a little 
hillock of excavated reddish clay marks their entrance, but, some- 
times, only a hole large enough to admit the animal passes di- 
rectly downwards, the earth seemingly having been removed.* 
Beneath the ground, the various openings connect, and form a 
perfect “plexus” of passages, often nearly parallel with the sur- 
face, and only a foot or so in depth. Horses and cattle frequently 
fall into these places, to their great annoyance, and the farmer in 
plowing such lands for the first time, finds much difficulty in get- 
ting his team to work. These underground passages, no doubt, 
extend to great distances, in proof of which, water has been seen 
_. falling into a hole in one place, and coming out at another a fourth 
or half a mile distant. ; 
In many instances I found water coursing its way through these 
passages which had been worn by the water large enough to take 
in the body of a cow. Then, again, pools of water appeared ~ 
beneath the surface of the ground, where the show’tls, young and 
old, took pleasure in sporting and performing their ablutions, 
_ The show’tl’s food is the various vegetation of the locality, includ- 
ing shrubs, herbs, roots, etc. These it gathers in a hurried man- 
-~ ner above ground, and drags them to the mouth of its burrow. — 
_ It has been observed to ascend a bush two or three feet, cut off a 
limb quickly, and retreat with it to its hole. Often, a mass of — 
ee dried sticks and rubbish may be seen about the entrance to the 
* Perhaps such holes are made by the animal burrowing to the surface from below. 
. 
