100 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



the opportunity occurs. This may be the case in 

 some parts of the country, but I have never seen 

 the slightest evidence of it. On the contrary, I 

 have watched the muskrats going in and out of 

 the lodges and working about the wood -pile while 

 one or more beaver were there, and they paid not 

 the least attention to their little cousins. So also 

 when the beavers fell a tree into the water the 

 muskrats will keep them close company while they 

 are at work. I have seen the little fellows cut off 

 small twigs from a birch tree from which two 

 beavers were busily engaged in stripping bark and 

 branches and carry it away to some hiding place 

 unknown to me. Whether or not the muskrat 

 does much damage to the dams is not apparent. 

 They have their regular crossings over the tops of 

 the dams, but I have never found any sign of 

 damage which could be directly attributed to 

 them. This, however, can scarcely be said to 

 prove them innocent, because the experience of 

 other observers does not altogether agree with 

 mine. The mere fact that the beaver allow the 

 muskrat to live unmolested in their lodges should 

 at least be regarded as an indication of the 

 seemingly friendly relations of the two. In both 

 Newfoundland and Canada I have almost invariably 

 noticed on approaching a lodge very quietly that 

 at the vibration caused by my walking a muskrat 

 will be seen slipping out from the lodge under 

 water, a few bubbles rising to the surface as he 



