148 NARRATIVES. 



up to a large house very cautiously (for, with the least j«r or 

 crack of the ice, away goes your game), and, with uplifted 

 spear, made ready for a thrust. I hesitated. There was a 

 difficulty I had not taken into account ; I knew not where to 

 strike. The chances of missing the game were apparent, but 

 there was no time to be lost ; so bang ! went the spear into a 

 hard, frozen mass, penetrating it not more than three or four 

 inches, and away went the game in every direction. With 

 feelings of some chagrin I withdrew my spear, and began feel- 

 ing about for a more vulnerable spot, which I was not long 

 in detecting. It being a cold, freezing day, I discovered an 

 accumulation of white frost on a certain spot of the house, 

 and putting my spear on the place I found it readily entered. 

 The mystery was solved at once ; this frost on the outside of 

 the house was caused by the breath and heat of the animals 

 immediately beneath it, and it was generally on the southeast 

 side of the centre of the house, this being the warmest side. 

 Acting on these discoveries, I made another trial, and was 

 successful ; and now the sport began in good earnest. When- 

 ever I made a successful thrust, I would cut a hole through 

 the wall of the house with my hatchet, and take out the game, 

 close up the hole, and start for another house. The remain- 

 ing members of the faniil}^ would soon return, and immedi- 

 ately set about repairing the breach. I sometimes succeeded 

 in pinning two rats at one thrust. I also became quite expert 

 in taking game in another way, as follows : Whenever I 

 made an unsuccessful thrust into a house, the rats would dive 

 into the water through their paths or run-ways, and disappear 

 in all directions. I now found I could easily drive my one- 

 tined spear through the ice two inches thick, and pin a rat 

 with considerable certainty, which very much increased the 

 sport, and I was not long in securing a pile of fifteen or 

 twenty rats. 



Here I made a discovery of what, until now, had been a 

 mystery to me, namely, how a muskrat managed to remain so 

 long a time in the water under the ice without drowning. 

 The muskrat, I perceived, on leaving his house inhaled a full 

 breath, and would then stay under water as long as he could 



