The Naturalist Sent to Trap the Olympics' Unknown Animals

Bernard J. Bretherton, who will be remembered as one of Lieut. O'Neil's party that crossed the Olympic Mountains several years ago with a pack train and soldiers, was in the city yesterday on his way to Hood Canal. For more than two years he had been stationed at Kodiak, Alaska, first as deputy collector of customs and then as collector for the Department of Agriculture and the British Museum. He made a very complete collection of the mammals of Kodiak, from the great bear to the field mouse.

Mr. Bretherton is now field agent of the Department of Agriculture. The department is mapping the geographical distribution of mammals and has detailed him to make a biological exploration of the Olympic Mountains. He will leave Hoodsport Saturday morning with pack horses and a packer for Lake Cushman. From the lake the Skokomish River will be followed to its headwaters, and then the headwaters of the Dosewallips will be reached. He takes seven dozen traps and expects to bring back the prepared skins of all the species of mammals in the mountains—elk, deer, bears, but especially the rodents. Of the latter the whistling marmot is the most interesting. It is not certain that this strange animal has been described by scientists. The seweliel, or mountain beaver, may have to be sought elsewhere than in the mountains, and Mr. Bretherton may make a trip to North Bend, where there is a large seweliel colony. On his previous Olympic trip he brought back skins of all the birds in the mountains.

The present exploration will cover six weeks or two months. Mr. Bretherton is a vigorous young man with a face bronzed by outdoor life. He is more than a mountain climber, being an excellent naturalist, and it is very likely that he will discover yet unnamed species of rodents in the rugged hills.