Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-27
UNDER THE SN 0 w

After a light snowfall the wild creatures
going about their daily work leave a very
legible record behind them. Not only may
their footprints be plainly seen upon the
surface, but each footprint will be about
the same size as the foot which made it,
and moreover the details of the toes and
toenails will all be present for examna-
ton When The snow is deeper the individ-
ual footprints may still be there, but the
fine details will he lost, and, it becomes
still deeper even the separate footprints
Will be lost beneath the snow which falls
into and partly oblterates the tracks
Eventually there is point at which some of
the animals no longer attempt to travel on
the snow; they find it easier or more to the
purpose to travel On the ground beneath it.
A Muskrat Burrow.
After one of the recent heavy snow storms |
was walking by the side of stream where
muskrats are abundant, and where their
tracks are usually to be found either in the
mud or the snow the whole year round
There was not a sign of their having left
the wafer, and, indeed, the stream and the
meadows On either side of it presented one
unbroken field of snow. However l knew
that if they were alive they must be getting
1000 somewhere, as they 90 not store away
supplies. as the beavers do, so | walked
along to investigate. Without warming |
sank TO the hips in a hole which proved to
be the mouth of Il muskrat burTdw. | clear
ed away some of the snow, and 1t became
evident that the DurroW was in daily use.
and that it connected with a tunnel which
ran cut under the snow Procuring a snow
shovel from farm nearby. removed the
upper surface of the snow from a consider
able section of the field and uncovered a
subway system which for iconpiexity outdid
the underground railways in any of our
large cites The tunnels ran far out into
the field, sometimes in long, irregular single
loops, and some times crossing and recTOSS-
ing other tunnels until 1t was no easy
matter to-trace them. But all the tunnels
led to the hole in which had accidentally
stepped and this was very suggestive of a
great railroad terminus The whole repre-
scented no insignificant engineering feat on
the part of the rats, which had evidently
been hunting for grains OF corn. for it was
a corn field they had been working in and
gnawed husks, here and there showed that
they had probably had at least some sue
cess.
Later in the afternoon I came to another
corn field where for some reason, the
shocks had been left since the fall MANY
of them were still standing, but some had
been blown over by wind which had also
swept away much of the snow, leaving in
many places not more than an inch. The
surface of this. particularly between the
shocks. was marked by narrow ridges
which indicated. as plainly as map could
have done, The routes taken by some small
animals in their journeys from one shock
to another. By carefully scraping away the
surface snow l found that the ridges were
the roofs of tunnels made by meadow mice,
and j presently verified the observa ton by
suddenly opening one of the shocks, to see
several dark brown, short tailed thieves
scurrylng away among the cOrnStalks.
Under most of the shocks were little round
holes in the ground; evidently the entrances
to the subterranean homes of the mice
Track of Mink.
Going along a country road a few days
later, l came upon the track of a mink The
visible part of the trail ended abruptly at a
hole in the snow, and some twenty yards
further on reappeared at another hole. Be-
tween the two holes there was a tunnel, and
the mink had evidently trayersed the length
OF it. Now why had he gone in there? The
surface was firm enough to bear his weight.
Doubtless he knew that under the deep
snow are to be found many of the small
creatures on which he preys, and doubtless
he has enough success in hunting them to
pay him for his trouble. 1t would be in
teresting to know whether he captures the
mice by running them down as they are
tunneling through the snow 1t must be d
fearful moment for a mouse when he hears
mink steadily overtaking him and at the
same time blocking all retreat. And the
mink himself, what stories he might tell
us If he spoke the English language. His
accounts of his own deeds would dwarf
the biographies of Jesse James and the
Younger brothers, and OF their imitators
whose names appear from time to time in
the foot-high, scare-you-stiff headings of
the yellow Journals. He could tell us of
muskrats murdered in the darkness of their
burrows; of rabbits tracked to their death
in the moonlight, and of the pitless cutting
of OF the grouse imprisoned beneath the icy
crust OF the snow. Ay. little we know, as
we tramp across the white country on our
snow shoes, what problems are being solved.
what lives are being led what tragedies
are being enacted beneath our feet. But
each story which comes to light no matter
how full of pathos it may be, tells us more
clearly than the last, that it is with ami
mails as with mcn--those which are fit to
survive Will survive, and those which are
unfit will go to the wall or y
ERNEST HAROLD tBAYNES.