The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1892-11-04
TRAPPING MusKRA-rs.
How the Fur Hunters in the Maryland
Marshes Secure Their Prey.

Marshes Secure Their Prey.
A visit to a Illustrating village, as
the scattering cabins of the trappers
along the borders of Fishing bay, Mary
land, are called, will be a 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
a 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 will. 1t is the making away with
the hundreds of surplus muslzrat car
cases that accumulate, although the
flesh of the muskrat forms an important
article of food with the trapper and his
/
musBrat meat are not confined to the
trapping villages of Fishing bay, for it
is considered a 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
muskrat meat every day, they never
show the richness of their keeping by
adding a single pound of flesh to their
carnivorous bodies.
| The musl1rat builds its house so that,
while it has a 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 a point a foot
or more below the water at low tide line
/ to the ground floor of the house, which
! is always flooded. The musBrat'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 i'll his fight 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 way tt
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 OF
hinges at the top. These doors rise al
the slightest push on the outside, bu
will not open from the inside. The traI
is sunk in the water to the mouth of tn,
muskrats tunnel and anchored there
and whether the muskrat is going out o
his house OF returning to it he is sure Il
walk into tho trap. If he had time tn
captive rodent could gnaw his way out o
the box, but before he can free himsel
he will drown. A whole family of musk
rats may be taken in a single night il
one of these traps, and, as every trappe
has out as many traps as he can attenC
TO, the rat harvest which they reap ever.
night is u rich one.
There are other ways by which tn
muskrat is pursued. In the daytime tn
hunters steal over the marshes and ia
long handled spears with sharp, barbe
tines down through the roofs of tn
muskrat houses. Sometimes a spea
will impale half dozen rats as they Ii
cuddled together in their cozy nests
Hunters with guns skirt the marshes a
night looking for muskrats with the al
of jack lamps, but that method of hunt
ing is followed more to indulge the sport
ing inclination of the hunter than t
reap profit. Times of extraordinar
} tides on the marshes are times alway
welcomed by the muskratter, for tn
{ rats are then forced from their houses
, in spite of the infallible instinct they al
alleged to possess in foreseeing such CT
lamitous happenings, and guardin
against them by building their house
higher. They are compelled to flee
. the open country and seek places Of saf'
ty, which they rarely find, for the tral
pers and hunters have no difficulty in Il
eating them, and so they are given owe
to a wholesale slaughter. an
, Furnisher.
@ Parade of the Royal Botanic Society.
Q The second parade of the Royal Botal
4 ic society in Regent park was brillia1
f success. All kinds of vehicles wreathe
i in flowers formed charming procession
u The most original and striking device
d the day was dog cart draped in whit
s shaded by huge umbrella, which gay
S the effect of an elephants howdah as
i appeared in the distance of the ground
Q Near at hand this chariot was seen to /
z entwined with plated straw and viii