THE MUSQUASH. 365 



servers of nature, call them brothers, but allow the latter the 

 rank of primogeniture from his superior building abilities. 



Essentially a bank-haunting animal, the musquash is never 

 to be seen at any great distance from the water, where it swims 

 and dives with consummate ease, aided greatly by the webs 

 which connect the hinder toes. It drives a large series of tunnels 

 into the bank, branching out in various directions, and having 

 several entrances, all of which open under the surface of the 

 water. The tunnels are of considerable length, and they all 

 slope slightly upwards, uniting in a single chamber in which 

 the inhabitants repose. If the animal happens to live upon a 

 marshy and uniformly wet soil, it becomes a builder, and shows 

 great judgment in the selection of the site, invariably choosing 

 some higher ground above the reach of inundation, or else rais- 

 ing its hut on an artificial foundation ; for, though obliged to 

 reside near flat submerged banks, where the soft soil is full of 

 nourishing roots, it requires a dry home to rest in. 



The huts are about two-and-a-half or three feet in diameter, 

 plastered with great neatness in the inside, and covered externally 

 with a kind of basket-work of rushes, carefully interlaced 

 together so as to form a compact and secure guard imper- 

 meable by water. They are sometimes built in such num- 

 bers together, that they may be compared with villages. In 

 winter they are generally covered with a thick mantle of snow, 

 under whose shelter the industrious musquash is able to procure 

 water, or to reach the provisions stored up in its subterranean 

 home. Thus it lives in abundance and security, for the marten 

 and the minx are too averse to the water, and the otter too 

 bulky, to be able to penetrate into its tunnels. But when the 

 snow melts, and the diminutive huts of the musquash appear 

 above the ground, the Indian steals up, and, dashing them to 

 pieces with his spear and tomahawk, secures the unfortunate in- 

 mates. Great numbers are also destroyed by the spring inunda- 

 tions, and in severe winters they are almost extirpated from some 

 localities by the freezing of the swamps which they inhabit. 



Besides the generality of the rodents, we find many other 

 burrowers among the more helpless or timid quadrupeds such 

 as the armadillos, the manis, the smaller ant-eaters or even 

 among the carnivora, such as the fox or the badger ; but as it 

 would lead me too far were I to follow the whole number in their 



