Alarm at the activity of the Canadian musk-rat continues to
grow in the north-west of England. Grim pictures are painted of what would happen if the great reservoirs such as Vyrnwy are tunnelled by this large and industrious vole. Within twenty years—between 1905, when some escaped from a fur farm near Prague, and 1925 when the damage began to be a cause of alarm—this animal absolutely estab- lished itself along almost every river bank between Prague, Vienna and Munich, and much beyond. Its spread in England has been at least as quick and thorough. Our island is congenial to the musk-rat. Already the animal's holes are a common object on the Severn. The trappers are catching large quantities every week in Shropshire, but there are wide districts where none are being caught. The question is, whether we are still able to annihilate the animal, or must regard its trapping as a permanent burden. A really united effort might succeed, but it would have to be extensive as well as intensive.
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