58 
ZOOLOGY. 
The markings, the motions, and the habits of S. lateralis are very much like those of the 
striped squirrel, ( T. quadrivittatus,) with which it is found. It is, however, more closely confined 
to the ledges of rock than is any species of Tarnias; indeed, I never saw it except when on or 
immediately about piles of trap rock; and its preference for such localities, its unfailing habit of 
betaking itself to them for refuge when alarmed, and its facility in climbing over large loose 
rocks, make it decidedly a rock squirrel. 
The specimens which I killed were feeding with theTamiason theseedsof a large Ceanothus, 
( C. laevigatus ,) and were very fat and well flavored, as I can testify from actual experiment, for 
we were at that time at a distance from the main party, and entirely out of provisions, except 
flour and rice, and were glad to get squirrels and trout, though both small, to add to our bill 
of fare. They were obtained on the upper Des Chutes, in Oregon. 
APLODONTIA LEPORINA, Rich. 
Sewellel. 
Baird, Gen. Kep. Mammals, 1857, 353. 
This singular animal, called by Richardson the Sewellel , seems limited to a narrow district when 
compared with most of those which, with it, inhabit the region it occupies. In Washington Ter¬ 
ritory it is found from the coast to the Rocky mountains. It is doubtful whether it will be 
found south of the Columbia, either on the coast range, in the Willamette valley, or on the 
Cascades. Eastward, however, toward the base of the Rocky mountains, it may occur. I have 
seen two specimens, one taken near Shoalwater bay, Washington Territory, by Dr. J. Gf. 
Cooper, and the other obtained near the base of the Rocky mountains, which were absolutely 
black, presenting a striking difference in color from those obtained by Lewis & Clark, Douglas, 
and others, which were brown, and of nearly the shade of the muskrat. 
CASTOR CANADENSIS, Kuhl. 
The Beaver. 
Baird, Gen. Eep. Mammals, 1857, 355. 
The beaver once inhabited all portions of the globe lying in the northern temperate zone ; 
yet from England, continental Europe, China, and all the eastern portion of the United States, it 
has been entirely exterminated, and a war so universal and relentless has been waged upon this 
defenceless animal, his great intelligence has been so generally opposed by the intelligence of man, 
that it has seemed certain, unless some kind Providence should interpose, that the Castor , like 
his gigantic congener, the Castoroides, would soon be found only in a fossil state. Happily, 
that Providence did interpose, through a certain ingenious somebody who first suggested the 
use of silk in place of fur, for the covering of hats. The beaver were not yet exterminated 
from western America ; and now since they are not “worth the killing” in those inhospitable 
regions where there is no encouragement for American enterprise or cupidity, we may hope that 
they wall always there retain existence in a home exclusively their own, 
In the streams flowing from the Rocky, the Blue, and the Cascade mountains—the old 
“stamping ground” of Bill Williams and that host of Blackfoot-hating, death-defying, “moun¬ 
tain men,” whose adventures and escapes, half fiction and half fact, cover so broad a page of 
modern story—the sagacious beavers are still numerous ; but it was in the fastnesses of the Cas¬ 
cades, one hundred and fifty miles south of the Columbia, in the clear, cold streams which, 
trickling down from the eternal snows, flow, now bright and sparkling, now deep and still, 
