310 APPENDICES. 



stories of some of the works ascribed to the beaver; and though 

 it is not to be supposed that the compiler of a general work can 

 be intimately acquainted with every subject of which it may be 

 necessary to treat, yet a very moderate share of understanding is 

 surely sufficient to guard him against giving credit to such mar- 

 vellous tales, however smoothly they may be told, or however 

 boldly they may be asserted by the romancing traveller. 



To deny that the beaver is possessed of a very considerable de- 

 gree of sagacity would be as absurd in me as it is in these authors 

 who think they cannot allow them too much. I shall willingly 

 grant them their full share : but it is impossible for any one to 

 conceive how, or by what means, a beaver whose full height when 

 standing erect, does not exceed two feet and a half, or three feet 

 at most, and whose fore paws are not much larger than a half- 

 crown piece, can " drive stakes as thick as a man's leg into the 

 ground three or four feet deep." Their "wattling these stakes 

 with twigs," is equally absurd ; and their "plastering the inside 

 of their houses with a composition of mud and straw, and sv/im- 

 ming with mud and stones on their tails," are still more incredible. 

 The form and size of the animal, notwithstanding all its sagacity, 

 will not admit of its performing such feats ; and it would be as 

 impossible for a beaver to use its tail as a trowel, except on the 

 surface of the ground on which it walks, as it would have been 

 for Sir James Thornhill to have painted the dome of St. Paul's 

 Cathedral without the assistance of scaffolding. The joints of 

 their tail Avill not admit of their turning it over their backs on 

 any occasion whatever, as it has a natural inclination to bend 

 downwards; and it is not without some considerable exertion 

 that they can keep it from ti'ailing on the ground. This being 

 the case, they cannot sit erect like a squirrel, which is their com- 

 mon posture, particularly when eating, or when they are clean- 

 ing themselves, as a cat or squirrel does, without having their 

 tails bent forward between their legs; and which may not im- 

 properly be called their trencher. 



So far are the beaver from driving stakes into the ground when 

 building their houses, that they lay most of the wood crosswise, 

 and nearly horizontal, and without any other order than that of 

 leaving a hollow or cavity in the middle ; when any unnecessary^ 

 branches project inward, ihey cut them off with their teeth, and 

 throw them in among the rest to prevent the mud from falling 



