126 
ZOOLOGY. 
yellow. Males: Penis osseous, obscurely bifurcated, knobbed; testes concealed; no external 
scrotum. 
They prefer to make their burrows in the rich ground near springs, perhaps partly influenced 
in choice of this selection by proximity to certain kinds of food. Before blankets and civilized 
clothing had become extensively used by the Indians of the northwest, many were in the habit 
of making robes and garments of the skins of these animals, by stitching them together. 
Habitat .—Washington Territory, from the eastern bases of the Cascade mountains west to 
the ocean. ? Northern Oregon. 
Three specimens sent by me to Washington are now in the Smithsonian collection. Several 
others, which I had preserved in alcohol for dissection, &c., were subsequently lost on their 
passage to the above named city.—S. 
Note.— Mr. Gibbs writes: “ I find the Lewis and Clark’s name of Sewellel for A. lejporina is 
an error. The Chinook name for the animal itself is o-gwool-lal. Slie-wal-lal ( Sewellel , corrupt) 
is their name for the robe made of its skins.” 
CASTOR CANADENSIS. Kuhl. 
Beaver. 
Baird, Gen. Eep., Mammals. 1857, 355. 
The beaver and the land otter, particularly the former, have multiplied rapidly since the fur 
trade has become of such little value. I am told that they are now in greater numbers than 
they have been at any time since the first flush of the trade. The natives no longer seek them, 
as they get clothing from the whites, and also because the skins bring such small returns, a 
dollar being the present price of a large beaver skin in the stores. The Hudson Bay Company 
give much less for them in trade.—G. 
I sent several hunters’ skins of the beaver, which I had obtained in Washington Territory, 
to the Smithsonian museum. Beavers are very common on the small streams in the Cascade 
mountains, and, as Mr. Gibbs says, are apparently increasing. I saw a “beaver dam” at the 
outlet of a small pond near Cedar river, W. T., which in all essential particulars resembled 
those I saw of the same animal in the Rocky mountains.—S. 
THOMOMYS DOUGLASII, Giebel. 
Columbia Gopher; Pouched Rat. 
[For extended synonymy and Sp. Ch. see chap. 2, p. 100.] 
The pouched rat is very abundant on the Nisqually plains. It is very destructive to potatoes, 
while in the ground, carrying off large quantities of the smaller ones and cutting the vines.—G. 
The natives at Fort Steilacoom (Nisquallys) call the gopher mes-ka-dah, or the thief. These 
animals are very abundant on the gravelly prairies near Nisqqally. They prefer the richer and 
less gravelly portions in the hollows and swales, as well as spots along the edges of the 
prairie brooks where the soil is good. In fact, the settlers look upon the presence of their 
peculiar mounds or hillocks as a sure indication of rich soil. These mounds are about three 
inches in height at their summits, and from nine to fifteeen inches in diameter—rarely, 
however, exceeded ten or twelve. Although, on account of their tendency to “cave in,” 
they are somewhat dangerous for horses to travel over, they, nevertheless, are not near so 
dangerous as similar heaps thrown up by the gophers of Minnesota, which will rarely stand the 
pressure of a horse’s foot, as they are larger, and their cavities greater than those of the 
present species. In Minnesota these “gopher hills” are extremely common on the buffalo 
