MUSKRATS
BY
BALTIMORE SUN
An abstract from the
Baltimore Sun, found in the November 9, 1900 Morning News
titled
Homes of Muskrats,
Sometime Served as Mock Terrapin
As nights grow colder and
long muskrats begin to build their winter homes and put on
winter coats.
The cone shaped houses are
made of coarse dry grass, small water soaked pieces of wood,
small stones, all cemented
together with a peculiar mortar which only the muskrat knows how
to make by chewing clay
and mud into a fine preparation. The cementing is done by the
paws of the rat.
There are two or three
holes, 'leads', which allow the rats to pass out or in, below the
water
or ice. The muskrat
seems to know how high the spring tides will flow and build
according.
Inside, the house is a
stick floor, stuffed with grasses, always above the water., upon
which
the muskrat will lay, heads
toward the lead, so at a moments notice can dash out and appear
on the surface hundreds of
yards away in the deep waters.
Laws protect the fur
producers which are caught by the thousands each winter. The
little
animals are usually caught
by steel traps, chained to a stake, and when caught dives into the
water and pulled down by
the trap into the water and drowned.
It is known that a muskrat
will breath under water and can travel for miles by a scientific
air producing process
which cause them to stop every twenty minutes to eject its breath
into
the water, this air forms a
bubble that becomes oxygenated then the rat breathes the bubble
and resumes it's trip full
of air.
Muskrats are served on the
Eastern Shore as mock-terripin, properly skinned to do away
with the musky taste and
odor. Then, properly cooked, the black flesh is tasty, juicy
,
tender and sweet.
The muskrats feed on the
roots of marsh grass and small shrubs growing on the shore, and,
are thoroughly 'warshed'
before consumed.
Abstract by Harrison H.
March 1st 2018.
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