Having been bitten in desperation by one of our Gilded Ground Squirrels - she was a lady, too - I was left to soliloquize on the potency of chisel teeth.

The wounds - two little punctures on the last joint of my middle finger- were 1-1/2 cm apart. Either both upper incisors had teamed to make one hole, and the lower likewise, or else only the teeth of the right jaws had been engaged. From the size of the holes, I should have judged the latter to be more probable.

Now, here was the interesting matter. The laceration from the upper jaw was slight: hardly more than an indentation. The (tooth) had struck glancingly. But the lower tooth or teeth had penetrated more deeply.

And there is a reason, which any one can ascertain by watching the little rodents at their chewing. It has been illuminating to note carefully one of my small beneficiaries trying to "stow away" a pear. The head is worked in such a way as to push the lower jaw up into the bite, the upper teeth acting, apparently, more as a hold or a bracer.

Then, if you examine a skull of a rodent, the cause becomes obvious (see sketch). The teeth of the lower jaw are longer and slightly heavier than those of the upper. The lower jaw used the same leverage scheme as that of any other animal's jaw - including man's: the fulcrum, a ball working in a socket, is shown at A. Strong muscles spread fanwise from the blade B to attach to the sides of the skull. (They are the same as the muscles one may feel swelling in the temples when he grinds his teeth.) But in the rodent, the leverage is greater and the muscles are relatively more powerful than in man. Furthermore, strong muscles run back from the skull (at C) to attach to the upper side of the neck vertebrae. As the squirrel gnaws, these may be seen rippling under the heavy skin of the nape.

A squirrel's head is an astounding thing in more ways than one. At the Lodge seventy-two Spanish peanuts were counted as they were solemnly stuffed at one sitting into the cheek pouches of one busy-tailed little scrambler.

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On March 29 the snow depth at the Headquarters in the park reached 171 inches, exceeding the maximum depth of 166 inches for last year which occurred in early April.

The winter of 1932-33 appears to be a record-making one for Crater Lake. Already the depth of packed snow and ice exceeds the record of last year and it is very probable the total snowfall for the season will exceed that of last year.