MUSQUASH THE MUSK-RAT 231 



If the marsh is large, there will be more than one 

 musk-rat colony. Having exhausted his traps on the 

 first, the trapper lies in wait at the second. When the 

 moon comes up over the water, there is a great splash 

 ing about the musk-rat nests; for autumn is the time 

 for house-building and the musk-rats work at night. If 

 the trapper is an Eastern man, he will wade in as they 

 do in New Jersey; but if he is a type of the Western 

 hunter., he lies on the log among the rushes, popping a 

 shot at every head that appears in the moonlit water. 

 His dog swims and dives for the quarry. By the time 

 the stupid little musk-rats have taken alarm and hid 

 den, the man has twenty or thirty on the bank. Go 

 ing home, he empties and resets the traps. 



Thirty marten traps that yield six martens do well. 

 Thirty musk-rat traps are expected to give thirty musk- 

 rats. Add to that the twenty shot, and what does the 

 day s work represent? Here are thirty skins of a 

 coarse light reddish hair, such as lines the poor man s 

 overcoat. These will sell for from 7 to 15 cents each. 

 They may go roughly for $3 at the fur post. Here are 

 ton of the deeper brown shades, with long soft fur that 

 lines a lady s cloak. They are fine enough to pass for 

 mink with a little dyeing, or imitation seal if they are 

 properly plucked. These will bring 25 or 30 cents 

 say $2.50 in all. But here are ten skins, deep, silky, 

 almost black, for which a Russian officer will pay high 

 prices, skins that will go to England, and from Eng 

 land to Paris, and from Paris to St. Petersburg with 

 accelerating cost mark till the Russian grandee is pay 

 ing $1 or more for each pelt. The trapper will ask 

 30, 40, 50 cents for these, making perhaps $3.50 in all. 

 Then this idle fellow s day has totaled up to $9 ; not a 



