The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-08-09
THE PRESS.
SATURDAY MORNING. AUG. o.
Now Fur Hunters in Maryland Sc
cure their Prey.
TNIofhaar opd ITrr,scko-

A visit to Illustrating village. rs
the scattering cabins of the trappers
along the borders Of Fishing bay, Mary
land, are called, will be revelation TO
the stranger The cabins are rude and
have barely habitable appearance. The
occupants are squatters, and the mate
rails OF which their cabins are built have
been appropriated from the nearest tract
OF timber land. The trappers and their
families are wild and tattered race of
beings, but hardy and good natured.
One popularity of a Illustrating village
is the large number of children that be-
long to each cabin.
Another feature of the community is
species of razor back hog that swells
the population with its presence. This
nondescript member of the porcine fam
lily has an important mission to perform
in these settlements, and he performs it
with a will 1t is the making away with
the hundreds Of surplus muskrat car
cases that accumulate, although the
flesh Of the muskrat forms an important
article Of food with the trapper and his
family. AS for that, however, eaters of
muskrat meat are not confined to the
trapping villages of Fishing bay, for it
is considered q great delicacy by many
an epicure in that land Of terrapin and
canvas backs.
A remarkable thing about the razor
back hogs of the muskrat region is that,
though they devour untold pounds of
muslrat meat every day, they never
show the richness of their keeping by
adding a single pound of flesh to their
carnivorous bodies.
The muskrat builds its house so that,
while it has couple of stories high and
dry on the ground, the entrance to it is
always under water. This entrance is a
long tunnel running from point foot
or more below the water at low tide line
to the ground floor of the house, which
Is always flooded. The muslrat's reason
for having this subterranean entrance to
his dwelling place is that thereby he has
an exit or an entrance in time Of danger
that will not betray him to his enemies,
either in his flight from home or in seek
ing refuge within its walls. But his in
stinct does not warn him against the
trap his most cunning and persistent
enemy places at this hidden entrance to
his house, changing it from a way to
safety into an avenue of certain death.
This trap is a wooden box, three feet
long and six inches in width and depth.
In each end is wire door, hung on
hinges at the top. These doors rise at
the slightest push on the outside, but
will not open from the inside. The trap
is sunk in the water to the mouth Of the
muskrat's tunnel and anchored there,
and whether the muskrat is going out Of
his house or returning to it he is sure to
walk into the trap. If he had time the
captive rodent could gnaw his way out of
the box, but before he can free himself
he will drown. A whole family of musk
rats may be taken in single night in
one of these traps, and, as every ,trapper
has out as many traps as he can attend
to, the rat harvest which they reap every
night is rich one.
There are other ways by which the
muskrat is pursued. In the daytime the
hunters steal over the marshes and jab
long handled spears with sharp, barbed
tines down through the roofs of the
muslrat houses. Sometimes a spear
will impale half dozen rats as they lie
cuddled together in their cozy nests.
Hunters with guns skirt the marshes at
night looking for muskrats with the aid
of jack lamps, but that method of hunt
ing is followed more to indulge the sport
ing inclination of the hunter than to
reap profit. Times Of extraordinary
tides on the marshes are times always
welcomed by the muskratter, for the
rats are then forced from their houses,
in spite of the infallible instinct they are
alleged to possess in foreseeing such ca
lamitous happenings, and guarding
against them by building their houses
higher. They are compelled to flee to
the open country and seek places of safe
ty, which they rarely find, for the trap
pers and hunters have no difficulty in To-
eating them, and so they are given over
TO 2 wholesale slaughter.