54 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
the narrow beach and plunged into the underbrush. Its landing apparently 
excited the interest or curiosity of another squirrel, which came chattering down 
a nearby tree. It would have been easy to interpret the incident as the cordial 
greeting of a relative who had made the passage earlier and was anxiously await- 
ing the arrival of the recent immigrant. 
The point from which the squirrel came is a long, heavily wooded promontory 
extending from the north shore, and separated from the south shore by perhaps 
an eighth of a mile of open water. At other places the lake is the better part of 
a mile in width. No reason for the migration — for the transit of the lake seemed 
to be in one direction only — was evident, though the boatman suggested that 
^‘something must be after 'em over there." Perhaps a more plausible explana- 
tion is that there was a scarcity of food on the point (or a superabundance of 
squirrels, which would amount to the same thing) which was driving them to 
seek new territory and the heavy forests of the south shore were more attractive 
than the somewhat more scanty growth to the northward. 
The individual we saw swam calmly and evenly with head well up, shoulders 
nearly submerged, but rump and tail high. It gave the appearance of swimming 
without exertion, and did not seem at all fatigued when it reached the land. 
It may be a common habit for squirrels to cross bodies of water in this way, as 
it is with many other land mammals, but if so, it has escaped my notice. 
Since writing the above note I have learned from a colleague. Prof. William H. 
Wright, that on August 15, 1921, he caught a ‘‘pickerel" (great northern pike, 
Lucius lucius) 37 inches in length and weighing a little over 11 pounds, which con- 
tained in its stomach a full grown red squirrel. The squirrel was intact, having 
apparently been devoured quite recently. The fish was caught in Lake Fanny 
Hoe, Keweenaw County, Michigan, at about 7 p.m. This is a deep lake some 
two miles long and one-fourth to one-half mile wide, and is completely sur- 
rounded by forests. The residents of the region expressed no surprise as they 
said the squirrels frequently swim the lake. — Leon J. Cole, Madison, Wis. 
GRAY SQUIRREL IN THE ADIRONDACKS 
In 1887 I was shooting on the south branch of the Beaver River in the Adiron- 
dacks. At that time red squirrels were very numerous, but one day, on the edge 
of a burning among some bushes, I saw a gray squirrel which I shot. It was an 
adult male and besides being castrated had only the stump of a tail and showed 
many scars, the result I suppose of attacks by red squirrels. As this was the 
only gray squirrel I ever saw in that part of the country, and I was there in 1887, 
1888, 1889, and 1890, I write to ask if there are other records of them. My 
guides had never seen others there. — George L. Harrison, Poplar House, St, 
Davids’, Pennsylvania. 
EARLY RECORDS OP BUFFALO IN “CALIFORNIA" [= NEVADA, UTAH AND SOUTH- 
WESTERN WYOMING] 
Several early writers mention the buffalo as a native of California. Thus 
Lansford W. Hastings, in an account of an overland trip to Oregon and Cali- 
fornia in 1842, enumerates the game found in what was then the western part 
of California — the California of today — and states that the game in the eastern 
section — now Nevada, Utah, and western Wyoming — was with very few exceptions 
