202 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



scarified by the muskrats is absurd. Of course, when' 

 the mussels die on shore, the scarification of the shells 

 is reduced to a minimum ; but it needs no patient search- 

 ing to gather hundreds of shells which as plainly show 

 the marks of the muskrat's teeth as the nibbled nut- . 

 shells prove the presence of squirrels. 



Probably the most remarkable of the stories is to the 

 effect that a muskrat was seen to carefully approach a 

 mussel which at the time had its foot extended. When 

 sufficiently near, the muskrat put forth one paw very 

 quickly and transfixed the mussel's foot with one or 

 more toe-nails; then taking the captured mollusk in its 

 fore-paws, swam to the shore — of course, using its hind- 

 limbs only — and then, in a necessarily erect position, 

 walked up a steep bank, aiid, once on level ground, pro- 

 ceeded to eat the mussel. Now, even if this muskrat had 

 accomplished three impossibilities, it never could have 

 gotten through with the fourth, that of releasing the 

 mussel from its shell without injury to the latter; yet 

 this marvellous account was given to a scientific society 

 as an explanation of the curious phenomenon that the 

 shells of mussels eaten by muskrats were never broken. 



Is there not a suflSciency of wonderful things in the 

 most commonplace corners of nature, without investing 

 the most simple of occurrences with a veil of mystery ? 



June 15. — I found a cosey seat in the midst of a dense 

 growth of ferns, many of which were shoulder-high. 

 This, the largest of these plants, is called Pteris aquilina 

 by botanists, and certainly a noble plant it is. I could 

 but think of the tropics, and recall the wonderful pict- 



