SWIMMERS CONCLUDED 



water, they nearly always disappear in November 

 or earlier, and seldom put in an appearance again 

 before April. And certainly the salt marshes, 

 with their flood-tides and drifting ice-cakes, would 

 make anything but desirable winter resorts for 

 such ease-loving creatures as muskrats. On the 

 whole, the most probable explanation seems to be 

 that they spend the winter in the fresh waters, 

 though if that were the case the number of musk- 

 rats in the fresh-water streams and ponds would 

 be materially increased, — in fact more than 

 doubled if all those from the marshes stopped as 

 soon as they found suitable conditions for spend- 

 ing the winter. But it has always seemed to me 

 that they were really least abundant in the fresh 

 waters at just the time when they are absent from 

 the salt meadows. In this latitude the ice above 

 the muskrats' haunts commonly remains unbroken 

 for three or four months at least. 



On the rivers the ice often breaks up during 

 heavy rains late in the winter, and is sw(.pt sea- 



175 



