64 WILD ANIMALS OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. 



Creek at Sherburne Lake and above, and a muskrat was seen swim- 

 ming in a beaver pond on Appekunny Creek. Apparently they are 

 not sufficiently nmnerous to form an important part of the fur catch 

 of the region, but there are enough for tourists occasionally to get 

 a sight of one swimming in a lake or stream or quietly sitting up 

 in a brown furry ball on a log or stone at the edge of the water, 

 munching his breakf;ist or supper. In the marsh and slough coun- 

 try of the Plains muskrats build numerous houses of mud, roots, and 

 l^lant stems, but here in the park they live mainly in the banks of 

 streams and lakes. Their burrows enter from below the surface of 

 the water and lead back to cavities in the banks a little above the 

 water level, but usually without any openings to the surface of the 

 ground. In these well-protected bank dens they spend the winter 

 in comparative comfort, and in summer raise their families of young 

 until they, too, are old enough to dive through the waterway and 

 swim out into the light of day on the surface of the lake. The usual 

 number of young produced at a time seems to be from four to eight. 

 An old female taken for a specimen in a beaver pond near Summit 

 Station on June 18, 1895, contained 13 large embryos, evidently an 

 unusual number for one litter. She had the usual number of 8 mam- 

 mae. She was a very large individual, weighing 3 pounds, and 

 evidently in the prime of life. The young when first born are naked 

 and helpless, but develop rapidly and are soon well furred little 

 muskrats, paddling about in the water and diving with great skill. 



Muskrats furnish one of the cheaper furs, not from a lack of 

 beauty or softness, but because the animals are so abundant and 

 widely distributed that vast numbers are trapped each year. Com- 

 pared with many of the more expensive skins they are equally at- 

 tractive and give better service, warmth, and wear. 



Family CASTORID^: Beavers. 



Beaver: Castor canadensis canadensis Kuhl. — Beavers are irregu- 

 larly distributed over the park, but are fairly common in some sec- 

 tions. Their houses, dams, and ponds are conspicuous along side- 

 streams in the Swiftcurrent Valley above Sherburne Lake, and old 

 houses and dams could be seen far out into the shallow edge of the 

 lake that was being flooded by the reclamation project in 1917. 

 There were also beaver cuttings around the edges of McDermott, 

 Josephine, Grinnell. Swiftcurrent, ITpper St. Mary, Waterton, 

 Kintla, and McDonald Lakes, and many of the streams above the 

 lakes in the park. In Gunsight Lake, which lies near timberline, 

 beaver cuttings were noticed along the shore at both ends, and several 

 beavers were watched as they gathered their food and ate it on the 

 beach or on low rocks out in the water. A few tracks and cuttinsrs 



