258 PRAIRIE MARMOTS, Book II. 
cutting off at every incision several pounds of flesh, he 
presented a most barbaric appearance : man looked like a 
wild beast in the spectacle before me. The chief part of 
the carcass was left to the wolves and vultures, which, as 
soon as we had left, immediately took possession of their 
booty. 
The place where the buffalo-cow was caught and killed 
was a large burrow of the sociable prairie marmots, which 
have very incorrectly been called the prairie dogs. On a 
level spot of ground where all the vegetation is destroyed, 
and whose clayey surface is as hard as a barn-floor, rise 
innumerable heaps of earth, each with an opening at the 
top similar to the crater of a volcano : this is the entrance 
to the dwelling of a mar mot- family. A certain number of 
such families dig their holes near together, and form what 
is called a prairie-dog village. In many places these vil- 
lages occur in such numbers (sometimes with a small space 
between them, at others nearly touching each other) that 
they spread over hundreds of square miles. The little 
creatures allow but scanty vegetation to spring up near 
them, which often exposes the draught cattle of passing 
caravans to a dangerous want of fodder. This I met with 
afterwards further south, upon the road from San Antonio 
to El Paso, where in many places the grass is scanty 
enough without this additional cause. 
The prairie-marmot has often been described by tra- 
vellers. The idea that these gnawing animals share their 
dwellings with owls and rattlesnakes had always appeared 
to me fabulous, until I saw the fact with my own eyes. 
Not only is it true, but it invariably is the case, without 
exception. On approaching a marmot-village, the real 
possessors and builders of the dwellings are everywhere seen . 
popping their heads with curiosity but cautiously out of 
