THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 1 25 



lation in the holes in the bank. Some industrious spade work was 

 therefore resorted to, and this, supplemented by canineefforts, re- 

 sulted in the capture of eleven musk-rats and one mink — the latter 

 seeming, for the moment at least, not on unfriendly terms with his 

 semi-aquatic associates. Great numbers are annually captured for 

 the sake of the skins, and yet the musk-rat population seems to re- 

 main undiminished ; and these rodents hold their own status better 

 than most of the original quadrupeds that cultivation and the clear- 

 ing of forests have thinned off. 



The Canadian otter, too, was once a common inhabitant of our 

 creeks and large rivulets, and some of the settlers remember the 

 time when the splash of the otter as he jumped off the edge of the 

 plank bridges into the water at road crossings was a quite common 

 incident, and otter slides, or runs, down the steep banks of streams 

 were common phenomena during the deep snows of winter. The 

 last otter capture that we have heard any report of in this locality 

 was made by an acquaintance of the writer in May, 1863. With 

 the drainage progress of the country, and consequent disappearance 

 of the supply of fish^ otter existence has become an impossibility. 



The musk rat does not seem to possess the robust burrowing 

 power of the groundhog, but prefers to domicile itself in the loose 

 earth near bridge embankments, and its subterranean operations are 

 frequently the cause of the giving way of mill-dams in liood-time, 

 also the culverts on railways are often rendered insecure by the 

 musk-rat excavations in proximity to the timber or masonwork, and 

 they are hated pests to railway section men and hydrographic 

 engineers. 



In the vicinity of a wooden bridge that crosses a stream near 

 this place, it is an entertaining sight to watch the playfulness and 

 gambols in the shallow water of a family group of juvenile musk-rats 

 towards the end of the month of June. Their romping and sport is 

 as rollicking as that of kittens or puppies in warm sunshine, but on 

 the approach of an intruder an instant retreat to their semi-aquatic 

 refuge is accomplished. The roots of the cat-tailed sedge, and also 

 those of the pond lilies are relished by these rodents and are fre- 

 quently stored in their hybernaculum for winter use. On one 

 occasion last summer a large hawk had noticed the " water polo 

 like " amusements of the rodent family party alluded to above, and 



