188 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



running forest-streams in day-time, I have often seen 

 them crossing and re-crossing the surface in the quiet 

 reaches through dark overhanging woods, carrying in 

 their mouths pieces of bracken, probably to feed on the 

 stem, though it seemed as if to shade themselves from 

 the sunbeams glancing through the foliage. 



The Micmac calls this little animal " Kewesoo," and is 

 not impartial to its flesh, which is delicate, and not unlike 

 that of rabbit. 



I have heard of a worthy Catholic priest who most 

 conveniently adopted the belief that both beaver and 

 musk rat were more of a fishy than a fleshy nature, and 

 thus mitigated the rigours of a fast-day in the backwoods 

 by a roasted beaver-tail or savoury stew. By the Indians 

 of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick the flesh of the former 

 animal is rarely tasted, but to the wilder hunters of New- 

 foundland it is the primest of forest meats. The musk 

 rat will readily swim up to the call of the hunter — a sort 

 of plaintive squeak made by chirping with the lips applied 

 to the hollow of closed hands. 



The acclimatisation of both these rodents in England 

 has been frequently advocated of late. In the case of 

 the beaver, which in historic times was an inhabitant of 

 Wales and Scotland, according to Giraldus, its introduc- 

 tion must be at the expense of modern cultivation, from 

 its tendency to destroy surrounding growths of young 

 forest trees, and to make ponds and swamps of lands 

 already drained. The musk rat, I am inclined to think, 

 in concurrence with Mr. Crichton's opinion, would prove 

 a valuable addition to the bank fauna of sluggish English 

 streams. 



I have thus classed too-ether as true lake dwellers these 



