CHAPTER VIII. 



WHOLESOME FOODS. 



Men are governed, or prejudiced very mnch 

 for, or against, things by appearances or names. 

 And this I find holds even with practical men 

 as are hunters, traders and trappers, men who 

 as a rule reason much, and are endowed with 

 considerable common sense. 



There .are many food meats that the woods 

 furnish that are tabooed from the hunter's bill 

 of fare simply by the name of the animal that 

 furnishes it. The skin is taken but the flesh 

 is cast away, and this for no other reason but 

 the name the beast is generally known under. 



Take, for instance, the water rat, musquash, 

 or the more generally used name of musk rat. 

 Here we have certainly nothing against it but 

 the name. Because did we of the fraternity of 

 hunters pause to consider, and reason, we must 

 see that a musquash ought not, and cannot be 

 different from a beaver. They are identically 

 the same in every detail except the formation of 

 the tail. They live on the same food, roots, 

 grasses, and twigs, as the beaver does and to the 



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