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 
