1885. | Observations on the Muskrat. 1047 
In the abandoned parts of the old canal before referred to, the 
muskrat built houses for the first time in this part of the State. 
They were few in number, and were confined to wet tracts, the 
source of whose water supply was springs from the neighboring 
Silurian hills, or in swamps adjacent to the line of the canal. 
Until within the past three years no houses had been built along 
the water-power canal between Brookville and Laurel. Each 
succeeding year I noticed the erection of a few more houses, 
until at this time there are a dozen or more within the fifteen 
miles just mentioned. Within ten miles of the northern end of this 
artificial water-way, in the old bed of the canal, have been several 
houses for a number of years. Whether this house-building 
habit is‘caused by some of the house-building muskrats coming 
from up the stream, or whether, from some unknown reason, the 
animals of our own locality have thus taken upon themselves 
this much of the ways of some distant ancestor, we cannot say. 
That muskrats do, from force of circumstances, change their 
location, is a well-known fact, and such a change would perhaps 
be the most logical way to account for the recent house-building 
just mentioned. 
I have made careful examination of some of these houses, and 
herewith present some extracts from my notes on one of them 
which I consider typical in construction and arrangement. The 
examination of this house was made in January last when the 
ground was frozen, but the more rapid streams had little or no 
ice upon them. This particular house was built upon the highest 
part of a piece of marshy ground on a peninsula extending into 
a stream which passed through the marsh. The end of the pen- 
insula had been dug off to the level of the bottom of the stream, 
leaving a semicircular exposure of land. A part of the base of 
the house followed the configuration of the edge of this excava- 
tion, while the remainder of the foundation rested upon the bot- 
tom of the stream. In consequence of this rather more than half 
of the house adjoined the water. The house was composed 
chiefly of swamp grass, sedge, coarse weeds and mud, while 
fresh-water algze, small pieces of drift, a few pieces of shingles and 
two staves were found among the more common material. The 
greater part of the mud was in the lower part of the house, and 
_Ithink was mostly brought in attached to the roots of grass. 
The ground: in the neighborhood of this house was cleared of all 
VOL. E E x. 69 
