The musk rat iz bigger than a squirrell, and smaller than a woodchuk,
and iz az unlike them az a Rokaway klam and a lobster are different from
each other.
He iz amphibikuss, and kan liv on the land a good deal longer than he
kan liv under the water.
He feeds upon roots, herbs, and soft klams, and smells like the wake of
a fashionable woman out on parade.
He bilds houses in the winter, about az big az flour barrels, all over
the marshes, and enters them from the cellar.
Hiz phur iz worth just about 25 cents, and aint lively in market at
that.
Yu kan ketch them in allmoste enny kind ov a trap that haz got a way tew
git into it. They are not kunning, and aint diffikult tew suit.
When i waz a boy i trapped every winter for musk rats, and bought the
fust pare ov skates i ever owned with their skins.
I hav seen them in winter setting up on end on the ice, cluss beside
their holes, az stiff az an ezklamashun point, and when they see me they
change ends and point down, like a semicolon, and that waz the last ov
them.
The musk rat haz a flat tale, with no more phur on it than a file haz.