NORTHERN OCEAN 353 



in Winter. The manner of life of this species of animals is 

 peculiar, and resembles that of the Beaver, as they are in some 

 respects provident, and build houses to shelter themselves 

 from the inclemency of the cold in Winter ; but instead of 

 making those houses on the banks of ponds or swamps, like 

 the Beaver, they generally build them on the ice as soon as it 

 is skinned over, and at a considerable [380] distance from the 

 shore ; always taking care to keep a hole open in the ice to 

 admit them to dive for their food, which chiefly consists of 

 the roots of grass : in the Southern parts of the country they 

 feed much on a well-known root, called Calamus Aromaticus.^ 

 The materials made use of in building their houses are mud 

 and grass, which they fetch up from the bottom. It some- 

 times happens in very cold Winters, that the holes in their 

 houses freeze over, in spite of all their efforts to keep them 

 open. When that is the case, and they have no provisions 

 left in the house, the strongest preys on the weakest, till by 

 degrees only one is left out of a whole lodge. I have seen 

 several instances sufficient to confirm the truth of this asser- 

 tion ; for when their houses were broke open, the skeletons of 

 seven or eight have been found, and only one entire animal. 

 Though they occasionally eat fish and other animal food, yet 

 in general they feed very clean, and when fat are good eating, 

 particularly when nicely singed, scalded, and boiled. They 

 are easily tamed, and soon grow fond ; are very cleanly and 

 playful, and smell exceedingly pleasant of musk ; but their 

 resemblance to a Rat is so great that few are partial to them. 

 Indeed the only difference between them and a common Rat, 

 exclusive of their superior size, is, that their hind-feet are 

 large and webbed, and the tail, instead of being round, is flat 

 and scaly. 



Though I have before said, that the Musk Beaver gener- 



[1 Acorus calamus Linn. A widely diffused herb abundant in the southern 

 part of the Hudson Bay region. The Crees are said to style it Wachusk 

 mitsii-in, i.e. that which the musk-rats eat.] 



Z 



