114 CANADIAN WILDS. 



or the boy who is steering the canoe is sent 

 ashore to prod about the honey-combed bank 

 with the handle of his paddle. The little ani- 

 mals thus disturbed and thoroughly frightened 

 make a rush for the outlet, deep water and 

 safety, but (there is always a "but") the Indian, 

 with his upraised paddle, has his eye steadily 

 fixed on the water back of his dam, and as fast 

 as one makes its appearance the sharp edge of 

 the paddle is brought down on its head or back, 

 and it is thrown into the canoe, quivering in its 

 death agony. From two to eight or nine are 

 not infrequently taken from one hole. When 

 the last one is killed, the Indian moves his canoe 

 on until he finds another colony, and the same 

 process is gone over again, and he returns to his 

 camp with his canoe filled with musquash. I 

 have in the fall received from one Indian as 

 many as 2,000 skins, large and small. 



Musquash breed twice in the summer, and 

 bring forth at each litter from six to eight. In 

 the fall the large ones fetch the hunters ten 

 cents, and the kits, or small ones, five cents. 



The spearing of the musquash is done in this 

 wise : The rats throw up little mud-cone lodges, 

 or houses, out from the shore, in about a foot of 

 water. They are not unlike beaver lodges. The 

 inside is hollow and the entrance is under water. 

 In this resort the rats sit, huddled together, dur- 



