Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GO'PHER, n.

1. The French popular name [Gaufres] of two species of Diplostoma, as is supposed.
2. An animal found in the Mississippi valley and on the Missouri, about the size of a squirrel. They burrow in the earth, throwing up hillocks twelve or eighteen inches high. They are very mischievous in cornfields and gardens. Peck's Gazetteer.