322 APPENDICES. 



mals are compelled to have recourse. His food is simple and 

 easily procured. His enemies, man excepted, are few, and rarely 

 of a formidable description; but if surprised by danger, he is quite 

 unable to evade it by the exercise of cunning or sagacity, and his 

 only hope of safety is in flight. It has been said that he is docile 

 in captivity, and may be easily rendered obedient to the com- 

 mands of his keeper ; but it would appear that his docihty is 

 limited to a patientendurance of his condition, and his obedience 

 to a simple recognition of those who take care of him, and whom 

 he may be taught to follow from place to place. 



His peculiar conformation renders the beaver what is com- 

 monly, although improperly, termed an amphibious animal, the 

 greater part of his existence being passed in the water, in which 

 he swims and dives with great dexterity. It is for this reason 

 that he always selects for his dwelling-place the banks of rivers 

 or lakes. Here he lives secluded during the summer in holes 

 which he burrows in the earth, and which he quits only in search 

 of his food, and to indulge himself with bathing. But as the au- 

 tumn advances, he begins to look out for society, and to prepare 

 against the rigors and the dearth of winter. With this view he 

 associates himself with a band of his fellows, sometimes amount- 

 ing in number to two or three hundred, and the whole body im- 

 mediately set to work either to repair their old habitations, or if 

 they have been compelled to desert their former place of abode, 

 to construct new ones on the same plan. 



The mode by which this is accomplished has been so repeat- 

 edly described by French and English travellers in the northern 

 parts of America, that it might seem almost superfluous to enter 

 into any details upon such a subject, were we not well assured that 

 many of the facts vouched for in their relations, and most of the 

 coloring which has been given to them, have been derived either 

 from the warmth of their imaginations, from partial and imper- 

 fect observation, or from the credulous ignorance of their inform- 

 ants. Under these circumstances, we cannot do better than recur 

 to the statements of one or two practical men, whose residence 

 in the country, and close connection with the fur trade, gave 

 them the best opportunities for obtaining correct information, and 

 whose narratives bear in themselves the stamp of authenticity. 

 Such were Hearne, one of the most intelligent and enterprising 

 agents whom the Hudson's Bay Company ever employed; and 



