102 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



true. Thoreau, in " Early Spring," remarks : " I find 

 . . . several have one valve quite broken in two in the 

 rat's effort to wrench them open. . . . All the rest 

 show the marks of their teeth at one end or the other. 

 You can see distinctly also the marks of their teeth 

 where, with a scraping cut, they have scraped off the 

 tough muscle which fastens the fish to its shell ; also, 

 sometimes all along the nacre next the edge." 



Again in " Science," No. 107, Mr. Beecher says : " I 

 have often seen the posterior margins of the valves 

 slightly notched, and the epidermis scratched, from the 

 efforts of the musk-rat to open the shell." This author 

 does not believe that the hinge of the shell is success- 

 fully attacked by the musk-rat, but adds, "this portion 

 is sometimes injured." 



So much concerning the " never mutilated " shells. 



The pedagogue declares that he can squeeze mussels 

 until they are paralyzed. It is a gift confined to few, 

 to say the least ; and he argues that his accomplish- 

 ments are not beyond the capabilities of a musk-rat. 



Of course the latter, having no opposable thumb, 

 must use both fore-feet, in lieu of the powerful hand 

 of a pedagogue, and squeeze until the mussel cries 

 "enough." As soon as the valves are opened enough 

 to give this agonized utterance, pop ! in goes the paw 

 of the rat and the coveted morsel is secure. 



But in our southern and western waters the shells of 

 these mollusks are vastly thicker than are those of the 

 Delaware Biver species, and the musk-rat eats of them 

 as freely as of those that are thin-shelled. This matters 

 not. It is the magic of the squeeze and not brute force 



