Because the mild and silently indifferent Muskrat 
continues to build his house of aquatic vegetation, 
while club houses, mansions, cottages, grand stands, 
and electric lights rise up about him, he is classed as 
an invader. He is, in reality, the rightful heir refus- 
ing to be dispossessed. With every approaching fall 
Muskrats build along the lagoons of the Island and 
the tortuous reaches of the marsh. Their houses are 
not shown on the registered plans of the city, 
although some of them are really imposing structures, 
appearing at a distance like old and moss-covered 
stumps spared by the wood - gatherers. These 
builders treat the advances of civilisation with 
calm, amphibious indifference, and even when their 
building sites are turned into wharves and piers they 
will take up their residence in holes and crannies, 
degenerating into a condition of semi-domestication. 
But it will be many years before Muskrats are driven 
to flats, tenements, and temporary lodgings. 
While the Beaver is first to retire before the invasion 
of man, his little cousin stays until the hunter's cabin 
226 
