1866.] LORD — MUSK-RATS AS BUILDERS. 53 



evenings spent by some lone pool, watching these industrious little 

 animals ; too earnest in my vigils to note passing time, as stars 

 one by one gemmed the sky, and night with silence came down 

 upon the earth. 



Winter came all too soon in October, heavy snow, and biting 

 blasts, sent the hybernators to their quarters, the lingering migrants 

 to their southern retreats, the deer to the depths of the forests, 

 the insects, some to their final home, others into torpidity, hid in 

 cleft or cranny. 



If previous statements be true, no musk-rats will be found 

 tenanting the mud-holes, but all snugly ensconced in rush-mansions 

 in the pool. 



On a piercing cold December morning, I waded through the 

 snow to the miner's quarter, my aid and guide, a red-skin, equipped 

 with pick, shovel and spear, to do the digging and capturing ; if 

 the musquashes, as I felt convinced was the case, had not aban- 

 doned their dwellings. It was no easy job breaking through the 

 frozen ground ; but the Indian warmed to his work, then I took 

 a spell, and so on, until the subterranean galleries were one after 

 the other laid open. No rats ; we were not far enough in. At 

 length we, by digging on, came plump upon a large vestibule, and 

 in it, coiled up semi-torpid and stupid, was a family of ' miners ;' 

 a goodly heap of dry grass and leaves formed an admirable bed. 

 The sleepers were hardly alive to danger, too drowsy to make any 

 attempt at escape. No food was stored, but they lay huddled 

 together for mutual warmth, as pigs do in straw. There were no 

 holes visible through the snow, but several had been dug through 

 the ground, to give, I imagine, admittance to the air. 



This was a grand discovery. If like success attend our assault 

 m the builders, my theory will be proven. 



The pool was frozen hard enough to have bome ten men, 

 mabling us to walk easily to the rush-houses, which were built in 

 rom three to four feet water. I could discover no holes, though 

 •|uite three feet of dome in each house was clear above the ice. 

 On removing the snow, and tearing open the intertwined rushes, 

 there, rolled together in a grassy nest, as we had found the miners, 

 were many builders, doing their quasi-hybernation. This clearly 

 proved there were two kinds of musk-rats, that differed in habit, 

 size and colour. The skulls also showing structural variations, 

 left no further doubt. Two species for the future must charac- 

 terize the genus Fiber, the second being Fiber osoyoosensis. 



