Popular Adventure Tales

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER XVI.

  THE MARMOTS OF AMERICA.

  From such a luxurious dinner you may suppose that our young voyageurslived in prime style. But it was not always so. They had their fasts aswell as feasts. Sometimes for days they had nothing to eat but thejerked deer-meat. No bread--no beer--no coffee, nothing but water--dryvenison and water. Of course, this is food enough for a hungry man; butit can hardly be called luxurious living. Now and then a wild duck, or agoose, or perhaps a young swan, was shot; and this change in their dietwas very agreeable. Fish were caught only upon occasions, for oftenthese capricious creatures refused Francois' bait, however temptinglyoffered.

  After three weeks' coasting the Lake, they reached the Saskatchewan, andturning up that stream, now travelled in a due westerly direction. Atthe Grand Rapids, near the mouth of this river, they were obliged tomake a portage of no less than three miles, but the magnificent view ofthese "Rapids" fully repaid them for the toil they underwent in passingthem.

  The Saskatchewan is one of the largest rivers in America, being full1600 miles in length, from its source in the Rocky Mountains to its_debouchure_, under the name of the "Nelson River," in Hudson's Bay. Forsome distance above Lake Winnipeg, the country upon its banks is wellwooded. Farther up, the river runs through dry sandy prairies thatextend westward to the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains. Many of theseprairies may be properly called "deserts." They contain lakes as salt asthe ocean itself, and vast tracts--hundreds of square miles inextent--where not a drop of water is to be met with. But the route ofour voyageurs did not lie over these prairies. It was their intention,after reaching Cumberland House, to turn again in a northerly direction.

  One evening, when within two days' journey of the Fort, they hadencamped upon the bank of the Saskatchewan. They had chosen a beautifulspot for their camp, where the country, swelling into rounded hills, wasprettily interspersed with bushy copses of _Amelanchiers_, and _Rosablanda_ whose pale red flowers were conspicuous among the green leaves,and filled the air with a sweet fragrance, that was wafted to ourvoyageurs upon the sunny breeze. The ground was covered with a grassysward enamelled by the pink flowers of the _Cleome_, and the deeper redblossoms of the beautiful wind-flower.

  Upon that day our travellers had not succeeded in killing any game, andtheir dinner was likely to consist of nothing better than dry venisonscorched over the coals. As they had been travelling all the morningagainst a sharp current, and, of course, had taken turn about at thepaddles, they all felt fatigued, and none of them was inclined to go insearch of game. They had flung themselves down around the fire, and werewaiting until the venison should be broiled for dinner.

  The camp had been placed at the foot of a tolerably steep hill, thatrose near the banks of the river. There was another and higher hillfacing it, the whole front of which could be seen by our travellers asthey sat around their fire. While glancing their eyes along itsdeclivity, they noticed a number of small protuberances or moundsstanding within a few feet of each other. Each of them was about a footin height, and of the form of a truncated cone--that is, a cone with itstop cut off, or beaten down.

  "What are they?" inquired Francois.

  "I fancy," answered Lucien, "they are marmot-houses."

  "They are," affirmed Norman; "there are plenty of them in this country."

  "Oh! marmots!" said Francois. "Prairie-dogs, you mean?--the same we metwith on the Southern prairies?"

  "I think not," replied Norman: "I think the prairie-dogs are a differentsort. Are they not, cousin Luce?"

  "Yes, yes," answered the naturalist; "these must be a different species.There are too few of them to be the houses of prairie-dogs. The 'dogs'live in large settlements, many hundreds of them in one place; besides,their domes are somewhat different in appearance from these. The moundsof the prairie-dogs have a hole in the top or on one side. These, yousee, have not. The hole is in the ground beside them, and the hill is infront, made by the earth taken out of the burrow, just as you have seenit at the entrance of a rat's hole. They are marmots, I have no doubt,but of a different species from the prairie-dog marmots."

  "Are there not many kinds of marmots in America? I have heard so," saidFrancois.

  This question was of course addressed to Lucien.

  "Yes," answered he. "The _fauna_ of North America is peculiarly rich inspecies of these singular animals. There are thirteen kinds of them,well known to naturalists; and there are even some varieties in thesethirteen kinds that might almost be considered distinct species. I haveno doubt, moreover, there are yet other species which have not beendescribed. Perhaps, altogether, there are not less than twenty differentkinds of marmots in North America. As only one or two species are foundin the settled territories of the United States, it was supposed, untillately, that there were no others. Latterly the naturalists of NorthAmerica have been very active in their researches, and no genus ofanimals has rewarded them so well as the marmots--unless, perhaps, itmay be the squirrels. Almost every year a new species of one or theother of these has been found--mostly inhabiting the vast wildernessterritories that lie between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean.

  "These little animals seem to form a link between the squirrels andrabbits. On the side of the squirrels they very naturally join on, if Imay use the expression, to the ground-squirrel, and some of them, differbut little in their habits from many of the latter. Other species,again, are more allied to the rabbits, and less like the squirrels; andthere are two or three kinds that I should say--using a Yankeeexpression--have a 'sprinkling' of the rat in them. Some, as theground-hog, or wood-chuck of the United States, are as large as rabbits,while others, as the leopard-marmot, are not bigger than Norway rats.

  "Some species have cheek-pouches, in which they can carry a largequantity of seeds, nuts, and roots, when they wish to hoard them up forfuture use. These are the spermophiles, and some species of these havemore capacious pouches than others. Their food differs somewhat,perhaps according to the circumstances in which they may be placed. Inall cases it is vegetable. Some, as the prairie-dogs, live upon grasses,while others subsist chiefly upon seeds, berries, and leaves.

  "It was long supposed that the marmots, like the squirrels, laid upstores against the winter. I believe this is not the case with any ofthe different species. I know for certain that most of them pass thewinter in a state of torpidity, and of course require no provisions, asthey eat nothing during that season. In this we observe one of thosecases in which Nature so beautifully adapts a creature to itscircumstances. In the countries where many of the marmots are found, sosevere are the winters, and so barren the soil, that it would beimpossible for these creatures to get a morsel of food for many longmonths.

  "During this period, therefore, Nature suspends her functions, byputting them into a deep, and, for aught we know to the contrary, apleasant sleep. It is only when the snow melts, under the vernal sun,and the green blades of grass and the spring flowers array themselves onthe surface of the earth, that the little marmots make their appearanceagain. Then the warm air, penetrating into their subterranean abodes,admonishes them to awake from their protracted slumber, and come forthto the enjoyment of their summer life. These animals may be said,therefore, to have no winter. Their life is altogether a season ofsummer and sunshine."

  "Some of the marmots," continued Lucien, "live in large communities, asthe prairie dogs; others, in smaller tribes, while still other specieslead a solitary life, going only in pairs, or at most in families.Nearly all of them are burrowing animals, though there are one or twospecies that are satisfied with a cleft in the rock, or a hole amongloose stones for their nests. Some of them are tree-climbers, but it issupposed they only ascend trees in search of food, as they do not maketheir dwellings there. Many of the species are very prolific, thefemales bringing forth eight, and even ten young at a birth.

  "The marmots are extremely shy and watchful creatures. Before going tofeed, they usually reconnoitre the ground from the tops of their littlemounds. Some species
do not have such mounds, and for this purposeascend any little hillock that may be near. Nearly all have the curioushabit of placing sentries to watch while the rest are feeding. Thesesentries station themselves on some commanding point, and when they seean enemy approaching give warning to the others by a peculiar cry. Inseveral of the species this cry resembles the syllables 'seek-seek'repeated with a hiss. Others bark like 'toy-dogs,' while still otherkinds utter a whistling noise, from which one species derives itstrivial name of 'whistler' among the traders, and is the 'siffleur' ofthe Canadian voyageurs.

  "The 'whistler's' call of alarm can be heard at a great distance; andwhen uttered by the sentinel is repeated by all the others as far as thetroop extends.

  "The marmots are eaten both by Indians and white hunters. Sometimes theyare captured by pouring water into their burrows; but this method onlysucceeds in early spring, when the animals awake out of their torpidstate, and the ground is still frozen hard enough to prevent the waterfrom filtering away. They are sometimes shot with guns; but, unlesskilled upon the spot, they will escape to their burrows, and tumble inbefore the hunter can lay his hands upon them."