JANUARY. 17 



tinning several days, and so gave me an opportunity of 

 exploring it at all points, and by night as well as by day. 

 Many a wide tract was too shallow even for a canoe, but 

 here I could wade with safety. This method of rambling 

 proved much more tedious than ordinary walking, but had 

 advantages that well repaid the extra exertion. 



I proved a puzzle to every creature I met, when wad- 

 ing through these shallow waters, for, except a few ducks, 

 none seemed positively afraid. I kept my coat wrapped 

 closely about me, having learned from the late Richard 

 Jefferies that nothing so frightens an animal as our sway- 

 ing arms ; and I moved so evenly that the water was 

 but slightly agitated. So, whether I was man or log, 

 was a problem solved by few of the many creatures that I 

 met. 



As might be expected, I disturbed many meadow mice 

 that were as active in the water as though strictly aquatic 

 animals, and it was evident that the permanent change of 

 environment would not render this species extinct. Cer- 

 tainly, animals so little incommoded by freshets as are 

 these mice would have great advantages over the other 

 mice that are found here, if radically altered conditions 

 were brought about. As they swam, dived, and crouched 

 at the roots of the bunched weeds and grasses, they looked 

 like and constantly suggested pygmy musk-rats. This is 

 the more interesting because these creatures are by no 

 means confined to the meadows, but are abundant in the 

 highest and driest of upland fields, where even drinking- 

 water, except the dew, must be hard to find. 



During my longest stroll I found no larger game than 

 the mice I have mentioned, until in the very middle of a 

 wide meadow, where the water was less than a foot deep, 

 I overtook a musk-rat one of the largest and blackest 

 that I have ever seen. I thoroughly enjoyed the animal's 

 discomfiture, and I can vividly recall its look of defiance 

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