148 NARRATIVES. 



up to a large house very cautiously (for, with the least jar or 

 crack of the ice, away goes your game), and, with uplifted 

 spear, made ready for a thrust. I hesitated. There was a 

 difficulty I had not taken into account ; I knew not where to 

 strike. The chances of missing the game were apparent, but 

 there was no time to be lost ; so bang ! went the spear into a 

 hard, frozen mass, penetrating it not more than three or four 

 inches, and away went the game in every direction. With 

 feelings of some chagrin I withdrew my spear, and began feel- 

 ing about for a more vulnerable spot, which I was not long 

 in detecting. It being a cold, freezing day, I discovered an 

 accumulation of white frost on a certain spot of the house, 

 and putting my spear on the place I found it readily entered. 

 The mystery was solved at once ; this frost on the outside of 

 the house was caused by the breath and heat of the animals 

 immediately beneath it^and it was generally on the southeast 

 side of the centre of the house, this being the warmest side. 

 Acting on these discoveries, I made another trial, and was 

 successful ; and now the sport began in good earnest. When- 

 ever I made a successful thrust, I would cut a hole through 

 the wall of the house with my hatchet, and take out the game, 

 close up the hole, and start for another house. The remain- 

 ing members of the family would soon return, and immedi- 

 ately set about repairing the breach. I sometimes succeeded 

 in pinning two rats at one thrust. I also became quite expert 

 in taking game in another way, as follows : Whenever I 

 made an unsuccessful thrust into a house, the rats would dive 

 into the water through their paths or run-ways, and disappear 

 in all directions. I now found I could easily drive my one- 

 tined spear through the ice two inches thick, and pin a rat 

 with considerable certainty, which very much increased the 

 sport, and I was not long in securing a pile of fifteen or 

 twenty rats. 



Here I made a discovery of what, until now, had been a 

 mystery to me, namely, how a muskrat managed to remain so 

 long a time in the water under the ice without drowning. 

 The muskrat, I perceived, on leaving his house inhaled a full 

 breath, and would then stay under water as long as he could 



