TRACKER'S EXCURSIONS. 149 



without breathing ; when he would rise up with his nose 

 against the ice, and breathe out his breath, which seemed to 

 displace the water, forming a bubble. I could distinctly see 

 him breathe this bubble in and out several times, and then 

 dive again. In this way I have chased them about under the 

 ice for some time before capturing them. I do not know how 

 long the muskrat could live under the ice, but I have heard 

 of their having been seen crossing large bays and rivers under 

 the ice, five miles from shore. I saw a man in Illinois who 

 told me he chased two otters under the ice for three quarters 

 of an hour, trying to kill them with his axe, and finally lost 

 them ; which goes to show that these animals, as well as the 

 muskrat, can live under the ice a long time. 



As I frequently speared the muskrat on his feeding-bed, 

 and subsequently found it to be the best and surest place to 

 set a trap for him, I will, for the benefit of the novice, under- 

 take to describe one as found in the marshes. A feeding-bed 

 is a place where the muskrat goes to feed, generally at night, 

 and is frequently many rods from his house. Here he selects 

 a place where his food is convenient, and by the aid of the 

 refuse material of the roots, &c., which he carries here for 

 food, he elevates himself partly out of water, in a sort of hut. 

 Here he sits and eats his food, and at the slightest noise, or 

 least appearance of danger, disappears in an instant under 

 water. In the winter these feeding-places are readily discov- 

 ered by a bunch of wadded grass, flag, or some other mate- 

 rial, about the size of a man's hat, protruding above the ice. 

 This little mound is hollow, and is only large enough for a 

 single rat, where he sits and eats his food, with his lower parts 

 in the water. When the rats were disturbed in their house, 

 I found they generally fled to these feeding-huts, where they 

 were almost a certain mark for the spearman. 



Finding I had taken as many rats as I could conveniently 

 strip before they became frozen, I set about the work of skin- 

 ning, and after an hour and a half of pretty cold work, I 

 bagged my skins, put on my skates, and started for the city, 

 well satisfied with my first day's excursion. 



In my next excursion, not many days after, to the same 



