28() MAMNr.M.TA. 



passing near a mill-pond, inhabited by some families of Musk-Rats, 

 we observed numbers of them swimming- about in every direction, 

 carryino- moulhfuls of witlu^red o-rasses, and Ixiildino- their huts hi(Wier 

 on the land than an\- we had seen before. \Vv. had scarcely ever 

 observed th(Mn in this locality in the middle of the day. and then only 

 for a moment as the)- swam from one side of the pond to the other; 

 but now they seemed bent on preparing- for some approaching event, 

 and the successive reports of several guns fired by some hunters, 

 only produced a pause j'n their operations for fn-e or ten minutes. 

 Although the day was bright and fair, on that \c;r)- night there fell 

 torrents of rain succeeded by an unusual freshet, and intensely cold 

 weather." '=' 



Spearing the Muskrat in their huts, in the early winter, is an ex- 

 citing and sometimes profitable occupation. The best account of 

 this mode of hunting which I have seen is from the pen of Henry 

 Thacker, who thus graphically describes his excursions to a large 

 marsh in the vicinity of Chicago in the winter of 1844-45 : — 



" With feelings of interest and excitement. I marched uj) to a large 

 house very cautiously (for. with the least jar or crack of the ice, 

 away goes your game), and, with uplifted spear, made ready for a 

 thru.st. I hesitated. There was a difficulty I had not taken into 

 account ; I knew not where to strike. The chances of missing the 

 game were apparent, but there was no time to be lost; .so banc-! 

 went the spear into a hard, frozen mass, penetrating it not more than 

 three or four inches, and away went the game in every direction 

 With feelings of some chagrin I withdrew my spear, and began feel- 

 ing about for a more vulnerable spot, which I was not long in de- 

 tecting. It being a cold, freezing day, I di.scovered an accumulation 

 of white frost on a certain spot of the house, and putting my spear 

 on the place I found it readily entered. The myster)- was solved at 

 once ; this frost on the outside of the house was caused b)- the breath 

 and heat of the animals immediately beneath it, and it was generally 



* (^)uadnipeds of North .America, \'oI. I, 1846, pp. 122-123. 



