The Fur Animals of Louisiana 339 



33,834 muskrats during the winter of 1923-24, as well as 

 .292 raccoons and 204 mink. 



This does not indicate, fairly, the real increase of the 

 muskrat on Marsh Island during the ten years intervening 

 between the disastrous hurricane and the peak year of 

 muskrat production, for the lands trapped by the Lovells 

 does not come within the category of good 'rat land, for it 

 is high and has always been more important for its raccoon 

 and mink catches thereon. But it does show, in a startling 

 manner, the come-back of this fur animal following an in- 

 undation when it was commonly prophesied that "every 

 muskrat on the island had been 'drowned' by the salt 

 water!" 



It has been found, from reliable figures, that muskrats 

 do build up their own population following a disaster. 

 However, water, and too much of it, was not all the musk- 

 rats of Marsh Island had to contend with. The summer of 

 1924, the summer that followed the record catch of more 

 than 33,000 muskats on the area we have under consider- 

 .ation, was particularly noteworthy for the record drought 

 that occurred. The most prolonged that this section had 

 been visited with for more than a score of years, records 

 indicated, and as a consequence fires that started from 

 other agencies than that of man swept the marshland of 

 the coastal parishes and Marsh Island was not excepted. 

 This lack of water, with the fire and smoke, and drying up 

 •of vegetation, was responsible for a marked falling off in 

 the muskrat population, as will be easily discerned by the 

 following figures : 



The total take of Marsh Island for 1923-24 was 336.535 

 muskrats, and with 33,824 taken on the Lovell tract. For 

 the trapping season that followed the drought summer of 

 1924, the total island take fell to 184.546 muskrats, while 

 the Lovell trappers secured only 9,034 of these animals, 

 and the season following, which was preceded by a summer 

 drought in 1925, the total catch for Marsh Island fell to 

 48,376 muskrats. 



According to J. W. Lovell, the conditions on the area 

 he trapped presented the same aspects in 1926 as they did 



