NOTES BY THE WAY 127 



above the water, I expected each day to see that 

 the finishing stroke had been given and the work 

 brought to a close. But higher yet, said the builder. 

 December drew near, the cold became threatening, 

 and I was apprehensive that winter would suddenly 

 shut down upon those unfinished nests. But the 

 wise rats knew better than I did ; they had received 

 private advices from headquarters, that I knew not 

 of. Finally, about the 6th of December the nests 

 assumed completion; the northern incline was ab- 

 sorbed or carried up, and each structure became a 

 strong, massive cone, three or four feet high, the 

 largest nest of the kind I had ever seen. Does it 

 mean a severe winter? I inquired. An old farmer 

 said it meant "high water," and he was right once, 

 at least, for in a few days afterward we had the 

 heaviest rainfall known in this section for half a 

 century. The creeks rose to an almost unprece- 

 dented height. The sluggish pond became a seething, 

 turbulent watercourse ; 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 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 tem- 

 porary character. The rats had built wisely, and 

 would have been perfectly secure against any ordi- 

 nary 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. 



