2 12 
MAMMALIA. 
he would sink back until, sometimes, only the tip of the nose was 
exposed. I fancy that an immense bull-frog, weighted after the 
manner of ‘Mark Twain’s’ ‘ Dan’l Webster,’ would cut a some- 
what similar figure. 
“ This method of progression was naturally fatiguing, and before 
the animal reached the opposite bank the strokes became feebler 
and the intervals between them longer until I bewail to fear that 
the tired creature would be drowned. At length, however, he 
struck bottom, and, loping across a stretch of bare mud, disappeared 
in the woods. Such an appearance as he presented upon emerging 
from the water ! — the lankness of his form revealed by the clinging 
and bedraggled fur, the ears drooping and the whole expression 
one of dejection and shame. 
“ None of the guides or trappers of my acquaintance have ever 
seen a Rabbit swim, although I have been told of an instance 
where one was observed to take to the shallow water on the margin 
of a pond and run through it for several hundred yards before 
leaping again into the woods. The purpose of this manoeuvre was 
apparent a moment later when a Sable appeared on the Rabbit’s 
track and following it to the water’s edge lost it there. 
“ On the occasion just described, however, no pursuer appeared, 
nor do I think that this Rabbit entered the water under compul- 
sion, or for the purpose of obliterating the scent of his tracks. On 
the contrary, the action was undertaken so deliberately, that I 
believe the animal to have been impelled by some idle whim, 
merely — such as a desire to try fresh pasturage or, perhaps, to see 
what the world was like on the other side of the stream. How- 
ever this may be, the case is doubtless exceptional, for Lcpjis 
Americanus ordinarily has as great an aversion to the water as any 
house cat.” 
Mr. Nelson Harris, a well-known Adirondack hunter, tells me 
that while still-hunting in Northern Michigan, a few winters ago, 
he saw a white Rabbit, that had stumbled into camp and was 
