738 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxviii. 



catch of musquash therefor has more than doul)led that of an}- of 

 the previous ten years in the district's history. In fact, 1 believe it 

 turned out about 450,000 skins for outfit 1900. When very numerous, 

 epidemic liver disease appears and carries off many thousands of mus- 

 quash. Last year's Cumberland returns declined nearl}" two-thirds, 

 and they may go still lower for this season, after which they will, as 

 usual, rapidly increase again in numbers. More attention than before 

 is now given to the hunting of the musquash in this and other districts, 

 and as a result the compan\''s sales are very considerably above the 

 average of former years. In January, 1897, they sold 491^,211 skins; 

 in January, 1900, 756,910 skins; in January, 1901, I am told that the 

 sales bordered on 2,000,000 skins; in January, 1902, 1,050,214 skins, 

 and in January, 1903, 1,482,670 skins. This last showing is only 

 53,122 skins less than double the hgures for the best sale (1873) entered 

 in the London sales stateaient. The aggregate total for the period was 

 10,600,056 skins. 



Leading hunters at the Pas, Cumberland, state that when about 

 a year old the musquash begins to breed. The female has but two 

 litters the first and three each succeeding season for a time. The 

 number of young brought forth at a birth varies between 8 and 20. 

 When born, they are weak and blind for some da3"s, but they soon 

 acquire sight and strength and learn to swim about and aid in pro- 

 viding for their own gradually increasing wants. Their food consists 

 of esculent grasses and aquatic roots of various kinds. As already 

 mentioned, many thousands of musquash die of disease, and many 

 other thousands perish in seasons of low water. Mr. Colin Thomson, 

 an intelligent observer, remarks: 



They have an instinctive habit which those who hunt them vv'ould do well to 

 learn. They have a general residence in which they live and exercise their natural 

 instincts; to this residence a storehouse is attached at a little distance, in which they 

 put up many dainty and succulent roots against the "rainy day" and a long winter; 

 and when misfortune drives them from their homes, they are not without a refuge, 

 although it be but a small one. The material used in the construction of their houses 

 is such as they find in the marshy swamps where they live, and it is not uncommon 

 to find the entire family of a season living in one house, sometimes as many as sixty 

 in all. 



Another informant, speaking of his own experience at Frazer Lake, 

 British Columbia, and of his residence at posts on the Saskatchewan, 

 Athabasca, and Peace rivers, writes that "the musquash copulates in 

 the months of May, June, and July; that the females have three litters 

 each season — the first being the most numerous, the second less, and 

 the third, the least fertile in the series — that the}^ are born sightless, 

 and that the male assists in the rearing of the young." 



