The Arizona champion., 1890-09-13
HUNTING MUSKRATS.
An Important Industry of the Fishing
 Bay (Md.) District.

I Bay (Md.) District.
 A visit to muskratting village, as the scattering cabins of the trappers along tho border 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 materials of which their cabins are built have been appropriated from the nearest tract of timber land. The trap pers and their families are wild and tattered race of beings, but hardy and good natured. One peculiarity Of muslkratting village is the large num- Der of children that belong to each cabin. Another feature of the com munity is a species of razor-back hog that swells the population with it's pres ence. This nondescript member of the porcine family has an important mis- sion to perform in these settlements, and be performs 1t with will. It is the making away with the hundreds of surplus muskrat carcasses that accumu- late, 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 1t is considered great delioacy 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, although they devour untold pounds of muskrat meat every day, they never show the richness of their keeping by adding @ single pound of flesh to their cadaverous bodies.
 The muskrat builds its house so that, while it has couple of stories high and dry on the ground, the entrance to 1t is always under water. This entrance is long tunnel running from a point foot or more beneath the water at low tide line to the ground floor of the house, which is always flooded The musk-rat's reason for having this sub terranean 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 seeking 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 home, changing it from way to safety into an avenue to 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 out side, 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 musk rate is going out of his house or return ing 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 muskrats may be taken in single night in one of these traps, and every trapper has out as many traps as he can attend t.
 There are other ways by which the muskrat is pursued. In the daytime the hunters steal over the marshes and iab lOuB-uduulOu Sp6dES M4Iu SndE DdIuO0 tines down through the roofs of the muskrat houses Sometimes . spear will impale half dozen rats as they lie cuddled together in their cosy 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 sporting 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 iniallible instinct they are alleged to possess in foreseeing such calamitous happenings and guarding against them by building their houses higher. They are compelled to fee to the open country and seek places of safety, which they rarely find, for the trappers and hunters have no difficulty in locating them, and so they are given over to a wholesale slaughter. -Clothier and Furnisher.