SWIMMERS CONCLUDED 



only the upper chamber, without any downward 

 passage whatever ; others have it in the centre or 

 near the bottom, with a foot or more of material 

 above; while some that I have seen were large 

 enough to have four or five apartments. One 

 that I saw in a little pond in the woods last 

 November must have been at least four or five 

 feet high, and nearly twice as long. Many of 

 them are built in willow-trees, or on platforms 

 of sticks which the muskrats arrange among the 

 alders ; and here they exhibit a good deal of the 

 constructive ability of the beaver, cutting their 

 wood on shore in a similar manner, and often 

 towing it long distances to their building sites, 

 where they wattle it firmly between the alder 

 stems for a foundation. 



Cabins so placed are generally composed 

 largely of cat-tail stalks and green twigs, while 

 those on the ground are more often built of mud 

 and pieces of sod. I know of one large one, 

 supported among the alders directly over deep 



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