66 
HAMSTER, 
hundred-weight of grain, but the young and the 
females providing a quantity much smaller. 
At the commencement of the cold season, the 
hamsters retire into their hiding places, the en- 
trances to which they close up. Here they repose 
for some months ; and in this state they are often 
dug up by the peasantry, who at this season of the 
year employ much of their time in hunting for 
their retreats. These are easily known by the 
small mounts of earth raised at the end of the 
galleries. Here the men dig till the hoard is dis- 
covered ; which often consists of a bushel, or a 
bushel and a half of corn ,* and they are farther re- 
warded by the skins of the animals, which are es- 
teemed valuable furs. 
In some seasons, the hamsters are so numerous, 
that they occasion a dearth of corn. In one year 
about eleven thousand skins, in a second fifty-four 
thousand, and in a third year eighty thousand, 
were brought to the town- house of Gotha, as 
Touchers of claims to the rewards allowed for the 
destruction of the animals. 
The hamster sleeps during the winter ; and 
though neither respiration nor any kind of feeling 
can be perceived in this state, yet the heart hat 
been discovered (by opening the chest) to beat fif- 
teen times in a minute. The blood continues fluid, 
but the intestines are not irritable ; and, in the 
open air, be does not become torpid. When found 
in a state of torpidity, his head is bent under his 
belly, between the two fore legs ; and the hind legs 
rest upon his muzzle. The eyes are closed; and 
when the eye-lids are forced open, they instantly 
shut again. The members are all stiff, and the 
body feels as cold as ice ; and if be is even dissected 
in this state, his lethargy is too strong to admit of 
bis waking entirely. 
, The stupor of the hamster has been ascribed 
