MUSKRATS 



BECAUSE the mild and silently indifferent Muskrat 

 continues to build his house of aquatic vegetation, 

 while club houses, mansions, cottages, grand stands, 

 and electric lights rise up about him, he is classed as 

 an invader* He is, in reality, the rightful heir refus- 

 ing to be dispossessed. With every approaching fall 

 Muskrats build along the lagoons of the Island and 

 the tortuous reaches of the marsh. Their houses are 

 not shown on the registered plans of the city, 

 although some of them are really imposing structures, 

 appearing at a distance like old and moss-covered 

 stumps spared by the wood - gatherers. These 

 builders treat the advances of civilisation with 

 calm, amphibious indifference, and even when their 

 building sites are turned into wharves and piers they 

 will take up their residence in holes and crannies, 

 degenerating into a condition of semi-domestication. 

 But it will be many years before Muskrats are driven 

 to flats, tenements, and temporary lodgings. 



While the Beaver is first to retire before the invasion 

 of man, his little cousin stays until the hunter's cabin 



236 



