BEAVER LODGES AND BURROWS. 133 



necessary to collect and compare the observations of 

 a large number of persons to ascertain even the prin- 

 cipal facts. While, therefore, their artificial erections 

 speak for themselves, their habits, in other respects, 

 can only be determined by a series of authenticated 

 acts, in the ascertainment of which the greatest cau- 

 tion should be used. There is enough, within the 

 limits of the veritable, which is sufficiently remarka- 

 ble, without entering the domain of fancy to produce 

 a picture. 



The Indian is a close, and, in the main, an accurate 

 observer of the habits of animals. Without hesita- 

 tion he places the beaver in the highest rank among 

 them for intelligence and sagacity. It is also a part 

 of the vocation of the white trapper to be versed in 

 their characteristics and manner of life to prosecute 

 efficiently his calling. From these sources of infor- 

 mation, and particularly from the last, the extrava- 

 gant statements concerning the domestic economy of 

 beaver communities were derived, which Buffon was 

 among the first to adopt and promulgate under the 

 sanction of his distinguished name. The reaction 

 which followed the disproval of these fictions tended 

 rather to arrest further investigation than to turn it 

 in the right direction ; so that from Buffon's time to 

 the present but little progress has been made in our 

 knowledge of this animal. After considerable inter- 

 course with Indian and white trappers on the south 

 shore of Lake Superior, in the Hudson's Bay terri- 

 tory, and upon the Upper Missouri, I have been able, 

 through them, to verify but a small number of facts 

 tending to establish, as well as to illustrate, the habits 

 and mode of life of this long-observed rodent. At 



