THE WEATHER-WISE MUSKRAT. 



ground the other side. Every mouthful was distinctly 

 defined. After they were two feet or more above tin- 

 water, I expected each day to see that the finishing 

 stroke had been given and the work brought to a 

 close. But higher yet, said the builder. December 

 drew near, the cold became threatening, and I was 

 apprehensive that win^r would suddenly shut down 

 lapon those unfinished nests. But the wise rats knew 

 better than I did ; they had received private advices 

 from headquarters that I knew not of. Finally, about 

 the 6th of December, the nests assumed completion; 

 the northern incline was absorbed or carried up, and 

 each structure became a strong massive cone, three or 

 four feet high, the largest nest of the kind I had evei 

 seen. Does it mean a severe winter ? I inquired, An 

 old farmer said it meant "high water," and he was 

 right once, at least, for in a few days afterward we 

 had the heaviest rainfall known in this section for 

 half a century. The creeks rose to an almost unprece- 

 dented height. The sluggish pond became a seething, 

 turbulent watercourse ; gradually the angry element 

 crept up the sides of these lake dwellings, till, when 

 the rain ceased, about four o'clock they showed above 

 the flood no larger than a man's hat. During the 

 night the channel shifted till the main current swept 

 over them, and next day not a vestige of the nests wac 

 to be seen; they had gone down-stream, as had many 

 other dwellings of a less temporary character. The 

 rats had built wisely, and would have been perfectly 

 secure against any ordinary high water, but who can 

 foresee a flood? The oldest traditions of their race 

 did not run back to the time of such a visitation. 



Nearly a week afterward another dwelling f 

 begun, well away from the treacherous channel, but 



