Evening star., 1899-11-28

to freeze over the boys will enjoy fine sport
and earn good money hunting. muskrats on
skates. While a muskrat 10 compelled to
get air IN order to breathe, 1t can travel
for miles under the ice. crossing wide lakes
and staying for hours below the frozen
coating In order to do this 1t must stop
as often as once In twenty minutes and
eject its breath into the water This viii
ared air rises to the surface, forming big
pale bubble, which can be seen easily
through the thin Ice. After 1t has been ex-
posed to the water for few minutes the
bubble becomes oxygenated. when the
muskrat inhaIes the globule to It's lungs
and resumes its journey. Boys who are
familiar with the ways Of the animal skate
over the newly frozen ponds looking for
bubbles, which they penetrate with the
blade of a pocket knife. AS soon as the air
escapes the opening Is plugged with a silver
Of wood, and the imprisoned animal, too
much exhausted and dszed to go away, is
snlothered near the spot where 1t left the
precious bubble. Later the bodies are chop
ped out with a hatchet and skinned. A
smart boy can catch and skin from forty to
fifty muskrats a day from a pond where
bubbles are plenty.
In skinning a muskrat incision Is made
near the root of the tail and the skin Is then
pulled down over the head the way a man
takes off his shirt. The skin Is then turned
furside out and hauled on over a shingle
to stretch and dry. AS fast as dried the
skins are stored away in a cool loft and
kept until spring, when the open season
permits the hunters to sell them. Success
full muskrat trappers who have camps on
the upper waters of Union river often take
1000 or 1900 pelts to Bangor at time.
Until two years ago the skins were very
cheap, bringing no more than 10 or u cents
each. When skunk fur went out of fashion
and the skunk farmers failed, muskrat
skins doubled In value. SO that good skins
now bring IS and 30 cents each. When a
man can take thirty or forty muskrats a
day and keep 1t up all through October and
November the business affords large mar
gin of profit.
The dealers who buy the pelts ship them
to Boston and New York, where they are
tanned and dyed and put to many uses.
Nearly all of the cheaper furs of COM
merce are made from muskrat skins. They
are also used for Innings of cloaks and over
coats and are made into caps capes, boas
and muffs, many of which are worn by the
wives and daughters Of the hunters who
captured the pelts. A cape made of twelve
skins which the trapper sold for 50 will COST
him s12 or S15 when he goes to purchase II
at the fur stores.
The Abenaki Indians who live at Old
| Town consider ''musquash stew" very
| toothsome and delicious dish, preferring 1t
| to chicken or partridges or rabbit. In spite
| of this high Endorsement, few white people
| will eat muskrat when they can get any
| thing else. In addition to it's unsevory and
| n.usky flavor the meat Is black and tough
! Those who have sat at tables where musk
| rat was served were never known to pass
| their plates back for a refilling. For time
| the farmers collected the skinned bodies
| that were left on the ice. and after boiling
| them fed them to hens. Later the dealers
| began to complain that the eggs tasted II
muskrat and refused to buy. Since then
| the bodies have been used for batting foxes
| or else were left on the Ice for the crows
| and eagles.