228 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



mal, half vegetable,, signified,, the trapper sets about 

 finding the colony. He knows there is no risk of the 

 little still-hunter carrying alarm to the other musk-rats. 

 If he waits, it is altogether probable that the fleeing 

 musk-rat will come up and swim straight for the colony. 

 On the other hand, the musk-rat may have scurried 

 overland through the rushes. Besides, the trapper ob 

 served tracks, tiny leaf-like tracks as of little webbed 

 feet, over the soft clay of the marsh bank. These will 

 lead to the colony, so the trapper rises and parting the 

 rushes not too noisily, follows the little footprint along 

 the margin of the swamp. 



Here the track is lost at the narrow ford of an in 

 flowing stream, but across the creek lies a fallen poplar 

 littered with what? The feathers and bones of a 

 dead owlet. Balancing himself how much better the 

 moccasins cling than boots! the trapper crosses the 

 log and takes up the trail through the rushes. But 

 here musquash has dived off into the water for the ex 

 press purpose of throwing a possible pursuer off the 

 scent. But the tracks betrayed which way musquash 

 was travelling; so the trapper goes on, knowing if he 

 does not find the little haycock houses on this side, 

 he can cross to the other. 



Presently, he almost stumbles over what sent the 

 musk-rat diving just at this place. It is the wreck of 

 a wolverine s ravage a little wattled dome-shaped 

 house exposed to that arch-destroyer by the shrinking 

 of the swamp. So shallow has the water become, that 

 a wolverine has easily waded and leaped clear across 

 to the roof of the musk-rat s house. A beaver-dam 

 two feet thick cannot resist the onslaught of the wol 

 verine s claws; how much less will this round nest of 



