The Muskrat 89 



the hunters may secure muskrats from the same lodge 

 at two or three different times during the winter. 



The greatest destruction of muskrats occurs during 

 the spring freshets. Especially is this true where the 

 banks of the stream are low, for in high banks the 

 animals can burrow upward and so keep beyond 

 the reach of high water. During the times of flood 

 many are drowned in the burrows, and those that 

 escape are forced to swim from shore to shore, with- 

 out shelter and without food. The hunters armed 

 with guns then appear upon the scene in boats. If 

 a luckless muskrat escapes one hunter by diving and 

 swimming, his head scarcely shows above the water 

 when he is shot at by another. 



There is now no rest for the unhappy muskrats; 

 every hand seems raised against them. Even the 

 foxes and the minks and the great horned owls take 

 advantage of their forlorn situation, and by the time 

 the waters subside their number has become greatly 

 reduced. I have known certain ponds, where many 

 muskrat families had made their homes, to be nearly 

 depopulated in one spring by reason of continued 

 high water, accompanied with sleet and rain, and 

 by the activity of two or three avaricious hunters. 



I myself have hunted the muskrat, but it has been 

 with a harmless weapon — the camera. It is some- 



