118 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



within tlio areas traversed by these streams. Our course, in passing up and 

 down, was obstructed by beaver-dams at short intervals, from two to three feet 

 high, over which we were compelled to draw our boat. Their numbers and 

 magnitude could not fail to surprise as well as interest any observer. Although 

 constructed in the solitude of the wilderness, where the forces of Nature were 

 still actively at work, it was evident that they had existed and been maintained 

 for centuries by the permanent impression produced upon the rugged features 

 of the country. The results of the persevering labors of the beaver were sug- 

 gestive of human industry. The streams were bordered continuously with beaver 

 meadows, formed by overflows by means of these dams, which had destroyed 

 the timber upon the adjacent lands. Fallen trees, excavated canals, lodges, and 

 burrows, filled up the measure of their works. These together seemed to me to 

 afford a much greater promise of pleasure than could be gained with the fisli- 

 pole, and very soon, accordingly, the beaver was substituted for the trout. I 

 took up the subject, as I did fishing, for summer recreation. In the year 1861 

 I had occasion to visit the Ked Eiver settlement in the Hudson's Bay Territory, 

 and in 1862 to ascend the Missouri Eiver to the Eocky Mountains, which enabled 

 me to compare the works of the beaver in these localities with those on Lake 

 Superior. At the outset I had no expectation of following up the subject year 

 after year, but was led on by the interest which it awakened, until the materials 

 collected seemed to be worth arranging for publication. "Whether this last sur- 

 mise is well or ill founded, I am at least certain that no other animal will be 

 allowed to entrap the unambitious author so completely as he confesses himself 

 to have been by the beaver. My unrestrained curiosity has cost me a good deal 

 of time and labor. 



Mors^an's researches amonof the tribes of North America were ex- 

 tended to many subjects not inchided in the great Yolume published 

 by the Smithsonian Institution. The results of these collateral inves- 

 tigations led to the publication of a series of articles in the " North 

 American Review." The first appeared in 1869, and was entitled 

 " The Seven Cities of Cibola," in which he comes to the qualified con- 

 clusion that the ruins on the Chaco in New Mexico represent what re- 

 mains to us of the so-called cities described by the ancient Spanish trav- 

 elers. Incidentally, the paper also contains a careful description of 

 pueblo architecture, and its relation to gentile life, and is compared 

 with the architecture of old Mexico ; and the statement is made that 

 the buildings discovered by the Spaniards in Mexico were in fact pue- 

 blos, or communal dwellings, but were exaggerated by them into pala- 

 tial residences of emperors, with retinues of serving lords and hosts of 

 slaves. The lengthy article closes with the following paragraph : 



"When the romantic features of the discovery and conquest of Mexico, which 

 made such a powerful impression upon the writers of the sixteenth and seven- 

 teenth centuries, and which have not yet lost their influence, shall become soft- 

 ened down by our increasing knowledge of Indian character, arts, and institu- 

 tions, it will be possible to reconstruct, from existing materials, a rational history 

 of this interesting people. If the author of the volume, whoever he may be, will 

 entitle his work ' A History of the Aztec Confederacy,' and, after explaining the 

 political relations of the three nations of which it was composed, and the func- 

 tions of the council by which it was governed, will then introduce Montezuma 



