Harper's Round Table, June 11, 1895 Part 11

A Florida gopher is very different from those we read about as living out West. In shape and size he is nearly like a common fresh-water turtle, with this difference; he lives on land. The gopher has a very hard sh.e.l.l covering his entire body except the head and feet. His front feet are nearly like a turtle's, with four or five claws, but very hard. They must of necessity be hard, for this animal burrows very deep in this hard, clay ground. His hind feet are round, with a flat bottom, four to five claws on each, evidently made for pus.h.i.+ng when walking or burrowing. They look like a miniature elephant's foot.

His head is also very much like a turtle's. When alarmed he draws his head and feet into his sh.e.l.l and remains quiet. He is a very peaceful animal. I have never known one to bite anybody nor anything else. The gopher lives in the ground, burrowing a molelike pa.s.sage several hundred feet long. There is no use trying to dig for one. It would take a week of the hardest kind of work to reach the bottom of his tunnel.

He comes out every day about noon for his meals. He eats gra.s.s, weeds, clover, etc., for his regular meals; but when he finds a farm with pease, beans, and other vegetables, unless he is discovered in time he will do a great deal of damage, for he eats such things voraciously. In raising their young the female lays from five to six eggs in the dirt she has thrown out when digging her tunnel. She buries them, and in a few weeks hatches out a great number of the cutest little things you ever saw. They do not stay with their mother, but go immediately to forming a little burrow for themselves, which is from five to six feet deep. They can live a long time without any food whatever. Their flesh is also eatable, tasting somewhat like chicken. May I write again?

HARRY R. WHITCOMB.

UMATILLA, FLA.

Certainly you may write again.

Blackberries Nearly the Year Round.

Down here we have a great variety of fruit. We have blackberries nearly all the year round. They commence in March and last until about the end of November. All are what we call wild in the States. Indians peddle them in big baskets on their backs. They are a great deal smaller than yours, and can only be eaten when cooked. I would like to exchange Mexican postage and revenue stamps with some Knights of the Round Table.

ROBERT L. MILLER, JUN.

P. O. Box 319, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO.

Mounting Paper Money.

A California member asks how to fix paper money so that it may be examined without having to take it out of envelopes each time. There are two ways of mounting your specimens. The first and most difficult is to take very stiff paper and make a leaf with an opening of the exact size, like the opening in a photograph alb.u.m leaf. Mucilage the tiniest edge all around, and press till thoroughly dry.

The other way is to cover the four corners, but this prevents the back from being seen. An ideal way would be to have two specimens--one to mount one side front, the other the other side. Rare ma.n.u.scripts are mounted according to the first method, and then the heavy alb.u.mlike leaves are bound into a book.

Want Corner.

Do you live in Chateaugay, N. Y.? Please favor Blanche French, West Dedham, Ma.s.s., with some account of the place, its size, location, and any interesting information. She will be most grateful. Hubert B.

Stephens is the new secretary of the Bollman Chapter, and his address is Box 274, Sharpsburg, Pa. It is a corresponding, stamp, and botany club with ten-cent fee and five-cent dues. Of course it wants to hear from anybody interested. S. J. Tucker, 2818 Mary Street, Pittsburg, Pa., wants to find old copies of _Notes and Queries_. Have you any? He will reward you if you write him.

The Benjamin Harrison Chapter, of Lee, Ma.s.s., wants suggestions how to make its meetings interesting. It also wants correspondents. Won't you write? Ernest A. Chaplin, Somerset East, Cape Colony, South Africa, writes to the Table: "There is a beautiful mountain just outside our town, and on it a place called 'Rabbit Rock.'" Sir Ernest says he collects stamps, and has many rare ones to trade.

The fee for admission to the Thaddeus Stevens Chapter, 910 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, is ten cents, and it wants members, both resident and non-resident. By mistake we announced the fee as $1. The Sylvia Chapter was prompt to give us the asked-for facts about it. Its president is Mary B. Yohn, 5813 Jackson Street, Wissinoming, Philadelphia; secretary, A. Grace Owen. One of its members, Harriett O.

Bender, wants to trade flowers. Address care the president. Will the Sylvia's president tell us how its meetings are made interesting? We wish to publish the information.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ivory Soap]

You have noticed the disagreeable odor of clothes just from the wash.

That's the soap. Cheap soaps do not rinse out. Ivory Soap rinses readily, leaving the clothes sweet, clean and white.

THE PROCTER & GAMBLE CO., CIN'TI.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHILDREN GROW

healthy--grow happy--grow rosy cheeked and bright eyed, on Hires'

Rootbeer. This great health-giving temperance drink should be kept in every home. It will benefit and delight every member of the family from the baby up, and prove a most delicious thirst satisfying beverage for callers. It's good all the time--morning, noon and night. Get the genuine

HIRES' Rootbeer

A 25 cent package makes 5 gallons. Sold everywhere.

The Chas. E. Hires Co., Philadelphia.

MONARCH

King of all Bicycles.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

TRADE-MARK.

Five Styles. Weights, 18 to 25 Pounds.

Prices, $85 and $100.

MONARCH CYCLE CO.

Factory and Main Office, Lake and Halsted Sts., Chicago.

Eastern Branch: 79 Reade St. & 97 Chambers St., N.Y.

The C. F. GUYON CO., Ltd., Managers.

[Ill.u.s.tration]