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Show 1892.] DR. J. ANDERSON ON SPALAX TYPHLUS. 473 proper the Mariut district consists of low rounded hills, that form a barrier between the lake and the sea. They are, however, of no great height, as the highest eminence does not rise probably more than 80 feet above the sea-level. On the gentle slopes rising from the lake, on the small plains, and in the hollows in the undulations, the Bedouins who form the greater part of the sparse population sow their crops, chiefly barley, trusting to the very meagre and uncertain rainfall of winter and spring for the irrigation of the land. If there is a moderate rainfall, the entire area, I a m informed, presents in spring a beautifully green and comparatively luxuriant appearance, being covered with various flowering plants, among which Asphodels and Hyacinths abound, and by the crops of the Bedouins, which afford these people a fair return under such conditions. However, I was not favoured with such a pleasing scene during m y visits, as everything was dried up, the rainfall of the past winter and of this spring being remarkedly deficient. " O n m y excursion we met an Arab working in his stunted barley-field, and on questioning him about the different kinds of animals found in the district, he mentioned one which he said was completely blind and that burrowed on the higher ground and threw up mounds of earth, the character of which he illustrated by taking a handful of soil and dropping it into little heaps resembling mole-hills. I was at first incredulous and told him that in order to convince me of its presence it would be necessary for him to show m e one, and I promised him 10 francs for the first he should bring alive to Alexandria. Two days afterwards he appeared at Abbatts Hotel with one in a strong canvas bag, which when opened was found to contain an animal certainly blind, as no external trace of eyes could be detected, the area which the eye should have occupied being entirely covered with skin and fur. '* I appointed a day on which to return to Mariut, and arranged with him that he should meet m e near his village, and that we should dig out the animal together, he having previously sought out a place in which he had satisfied himself the animal was to be found. " O n meeting him on the day appointed, he led m e to a little level flat, on the upper margin of a barley-field, and approaching it carefully he stopped short and pointed out a small hole he had dug and in which fresh earth had recently been thrown up, as if by a mole. In making the hole he had cut through two of the passages of the burrower, and he knew that in leaving them exposed the animal, if it were in either of them, would close the one in which it happened to be by throwing out earth, that would be more moist than the surrounding soil and thus indicate its presence. Having thus satisfied m e that an animal was in this spot, he led m e higher up to another and still larger level expanse covered with little mounds and with the dried stalks of Asphodels. Here, again, he had taken the same precaution to find out the whereabouts of the burrower. Selecting one passage we commenced to dig, but we had not proceeded far when we found that it gave off secondary tunnels, which had to be dug up to their blind extremities. As some of these passages were nearly 30 to 40 yards long, the work of |