168 RODENT WATER TRESPASSERS. 



will see no more of it for a long time, It always makes 

 for its burrow, which opens into the water, and has 

 several entrances, so as to allow the animal to enter or 

 leave it at several points. The burrow runs for a con- 

 siderable distance, and, as is the case with most 

 animals which dig tunnels in the banks of rivers, it 

 slopes upwards, so that the sleeping chamber is far 

 above the highest point which the water is likely to 

 reach. When the Musquash dives, it always gives the 

 water a slap with its tail, very much after the manner 

 of the beaver. 



I have, in the course of this brief narrative, men- 

 tioned that there are men who systematically hunt the 

 Musquash. This is done for the sake of its fur, which, 

 like that of many other water trespassers, is of a very 

 fine quality. According to the usual structure among 

 such animals, there are two coats of hair the outer 

 being coarse, and the inner thick and fine, very much 

 like that of the beaver. As the animal is wary and 

 active, the hunters seldom employ the gun, partly 

 because so much time is wasted in getting a shot, and 

 partly because the skin is injured if the animal be 

 struck anywhere except on the head. 



The fur- hunters, therefore, place their chief reliance 

 in traps, just as they do when they hunt the beaver. 

 These traps are made of iron, and are not fixed, but so 

 placed that as soon as the Musquash is caught, its 

 struggles bring it into deep water, where it is sunk 

 by the weight of the trap and drowned. 



Audubon, who was practically familiar with these 

 cunning rodents, mentions that if the animal be not at 

 once sunk when trapped, its companions gather round 



