S&UIitREL. 
293 
to be particularly busy in the autumn, and to run 
about the woods in greater numbers than usual, it 
is a certain sign that the weather will soon become 
severe ; for the same instinct that teaches them to 
defend their nests from the wet, also directs them to 
provide against the inclemency of the approaching 
season, by laying in a larger stock than usual, lest 
the frost and snow should lock up their subterrane- 
ous magazines. 
A reward of about three-pence a head was once 
offered in America for their destruction ; when in the 
province of Pennsylvania alone , 8000 pounds cur- 
rency was paid in one year. Therefore the number 
killed in that time must have amounted to six 
hundred and forty thousand. 
