TRAPPING GNOMES. 
141 
learned, was Evotomys , the long-eared gnome. 
His rich coloring matched to perfection the de¬ 
cayed hemlock stump in which he lived, and 
harmonized with the brown bark of pines and 
the stained waters of the swamp brooks. In the 
sunlight, or upon the sand by the brookside, he 
would have been conspicuous. Where he lay he 
looked like a fragment of the reddish wood 
under him. 
Five more of his tribe, and a tiny shrew, only 
three inches long, were found in the remaining 
swamp traps. One of the gnomes had been 
nearly devoured as he lay in the trap, the parts 
remaining being skin, feet, tail, and a small 
portion of the head. I suspected a big mole of 
being the ghoul. On my way home I looked 
in a trap set under a small foot-bridge which 
spanned a damp spot in a mowing-field. The 
victims here — for two had been caught at 
once — were of the family Arvicola , the sturdy 
gnomes of the fields. Their eyes were very 
small, their ears almost concealed by their 
coarse, dark-brown hair, and their bodies awk¬ 
wardly but strongly built. They are the farm¬ 
ing gnomes. 
On September 17, I walked from Berry’s to 
the Swift River intervale, over the once Host 
trail,” now nearly completed as a broad bridle¬ 
path and winter road. I took twenty-five 
