THE MUSQUASH. 
HE muskrat, or musquash, are quite numerous in the 
4% quiet waters of Aroostook, making a pretty fair 
business for the trapper if caught in the spring. Fall trap- 
ping should not be engaged in, as the skins at that time are 
worth but a trifle; besides the kittens being so numerous, 
many are taken which are small and worthless. When the 
ice is all gone in the spring it is more profitable, as the kits 
are about grown and all pelts bring a fair price. 
In starting out with the canoe to set the traps around the 
boggy shores, say for two or three miles, fifty or more traps 
are none too many to be useful. Small stakes, two or three 
feet long are provided for each trap; the stub of a branch 
left on at the butt to hold the ring of the chain in place, should 
the stake be pushed down its length, or when the stake is 
Wired at the small end to the bushes; also as many small 
branches of fir as traps, to mark the spot where each trap is 
placed. Usually two are trapping together; the bow man in 
the canoe places the traps. His evergreen branches and stakes 
are laid well up forward, butts toward him, next the trapga¥ffhe 
chains wound up about them, and a half yard o 
om 
rar h 

