Definition of "sewellel" []

• A small, thick-bodied rodent (Aplodontia rufa) of the Pacific coast of North America, having tiny eyes and small ears and usually found in communal burrows dug in the banks of streams. Also called mountain beaver. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This extinct mammal, related to the living sewellel, is the only known horned rodent and the smallest horned mammal."
• "The name "sewellel" was applied to the robes which they made from the skins; the animal is called "show'tl," by some Indian tribes. —"
• "The southern part of British Columbia contains the mule deer of western North America (_Mazama macrotis_), and a very strange rodent, the sewellel or mountain beaver (_Haplodon_), a creature distantly allied to squirrels, marmots, and beavers, but restricted in its distribution to a few parts of California, Oregon, and British"