This bounty notice provides a small window into the economic and natural history of New England. The 27 mile long Middlesex Canal connected the Merrimack River and the port of Boston. Other canals extended from the Merrimack River towards the north, creating a network of waterways that made it possible to ship goods by boat from Boston to as far north as Concord, New Hampshire. This was important because before railroads it was much cheaper and faster to transport goods and people by water than by land.

But before the canal was rendered irrelevant by railroads it faced another enemy: mink and muskrats (or musquashes, as they were sometimes called from the Abnaki word muskwessu). During winter months minks and muskrats would burrow into the banks of the canal so frequently they were in danger of breaking. Hence the closer the animal was to the canal when it was killed, the higher the bounty. A muskrat within 2 rods (33 feet) of a canal bank was clearly up to no good.