Note 8 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS.

February the 8th. The Musk-rats, so called by the English in this country, on account of their scent, are pretty common in North America; they always live near the water, especially on the banks of lakes, rivers, and brooks. On travelling to places where they are, you see the holes which they have dug in the ground just at the water’s edge, or a little above its surface. In these holes they have their nests, and there they continue whenever they are not in the water in pursuit of food. The Swedes call them Désmans Rattor8, and the French, Rats musqués. Linnæus calls this animal Castor Zibethicus. Their food is chiefly the muscles which ly at the bottom of lakes and rivers; you see a number of such shells near the entrance of their holes. I am told they likewise eat several kinds of roots and plants. They differ from the European Musk-rat, or Linnæus’s Castor Moschatus. The teeth are the same in both; the tail of the American is compressed on the sides so, that one sharp edge goes upwards and the other downwards: the hind feet are not palmated, or joined by a moveable skin, but are peculiar for having on both sides of the feet, long, white, close, pectinated, off-standing hair, besides the short hair with which the feet are quite covered. Such hairs are on both sides of the toes, and do the same service in swimming as a web. Their size is that of a little cat, or to be more accurate, the length of the body is about ten inches, and the tail of the same length: the colour of the head, neck, back, sides, and of the outside of the thighs, is blackish brown; the hairs are soft and shining; under the neck, on the breasts, and on the inside of the thighs, they are grey. They make their nests in the dykes that are erected along the banks of rivers to keep off the water from the adjoining meadows; but they often do a great deal of damage, by spoiling the dykes with digging, and opening passages for the water to come into the meadows; whereas Beavers stop up all the holes in a dyke or bank. They make their nests of twigs and such like things externally, and carry soft stuff into them for their young ones to ly upon. The Swedes asserted that they could never observe a diminution in their number, but believed that they were as numerous at present as formerly. As they damage the banks so considerably, the people are endeavouring to extirpate them, when they can find out their nests; the skin is paid for, and this is an encouragement towards catching the animal. A skin of a Musk-rat formerly cost but three-pence, but at present they gave from six-pence to nine-pence. The skins are chiefly employed by hatters, who make hats of the hair, which are said to be nearly as good as Beaver hats. The Musk-rats are commonly caught in traps, with apples as baits. In the country of the Iroquese, I saw those Indians following the holes of the Musk-rats by digging till they came to their nests, where they killed them all. Nobody here eats their flesh; I do not know whether the Indians eat it, for they are commonly not over nice in the choice of meat. The musk-bag is put between the cloaths in order to preserve them against worms. It is very difficult to extirpate these Rats when they are once settled in a bank. A Swede, however, told me, that he had freed his bank, or piece of dyke along the river, from them in the following manner: He sought for all their holes, stopped them all up with earth, excepting one, on that side from whence the wind came. He put a quantity of sulphur into the open entrance, set fire to it, and then closed the hole, leaving but a small one for the wind to pass through. The smoke of the sulphur then entered their most remote nests, and stifled all the animals. As soon as the sulphur was burnt, he was obliged to dig up part of the ground in the bank, where they had their nests; and he found them lie dead by heaps. He sold the skins, and they paid his trouble, not to mention the advantage he got by clearing his bank of the Musk-rats.