CHAPTER YI. 



HOW TO HUNT AND CATCH THE MUSKRAT. 



The musquash, or muskrat as it is often called, is another 

 peculiar American animal, which is so well known as 

 scarcely to require description. It is also very w^idely distrib- 

 uted over the United States, frequenting alike land border- 

 ing uj^on salt and fresh water, choosing swamps with dry, 

 sandy banks, or earth embankments, in which it burrows. 

 It is ten or tw^elve inches long, with a thick-set, archiug 

 body ; head short, but rat-like ; and the gnawing or front 

 teeth very large, long, and powerful. The hind feet are 

 very long, and a short web is found only between the 

 longest toes ; yet the animals are rapid and strong swim- 

 mers. The tail of the musquash is compressed vertically, 

 that is, it is flat, the edges being above and below. The 

 beaver, which the muskrat greatly resembles in its hab- 

 its, and wdiich is naturally close akin to it, has a broad, 

 horizontally flat tail. Like the beaver, the musquash 

 builds his dam-like house in the sw^amps, ponds, and 

 marshes, setting the house upon the end of a log, or some- 

 thing that wdll swim, in the event of a flood, otherwise 

 they w^ould be drowned out ; and where they are frozen 

 down in time of low water, when the flood comes, they 



have to abandon the house and go to their holes in the 

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