THE MUSKRAT 45 



days afterward we had the heaviest rainfall known 

 in this section for half a century. The creeks 

 rose to an almost unprecedented height. The 

 sluggish pond became a seething, turbulent water- 

 course ; gradually the angry element crept up the 

 sides of these lake dwellings, till, when the rain 

 ceased, about four o'clock, they showed above 

 the flood no larger than a man's hat. During 

 the night the channel shifted till the main current 



o 



swept over them, and next day not a vestige of 

 the nests was to be seen; they had gone down- 

 stream, as had many other dwellings of a less 

 temporary character. The rats had built wisely, 

 and would have been perfectly secure against any 

 ordinary high water, but who can foresee a flood ? 

 The oldest traditions of their race did not run 

 back to the time of such a visitation. 



Nearly a week afterward another dwelling was 

 begun, well away from the treacherous channel, 

 but the architects did not work at it with much 

 heart ; the material was very scarce, the ice hin- 

 dered, and before the basement-story was fairly 

 finished, winter had the pond under his lock and 

 key. 



In other localities I noticed that where the 

 nests were placed on the banks of streams, they 

 were made secure against the floods by being 

 built amid a small clump of bushes. When the 



