Bennett's article on the beaver. 323 



Cavtwright, who resided for nearly sixteen years on the coast of 

 Labrador for the sole purpose of procuring furs. From the jour- 

 nals of these two plain-dealing and matter-of-fact men we shall 

 proceed to give the principal facts with which they furnish us 

 relative to the habits of the beaver in its native state, and to the 

 various modes adopted by the hunters for possessing themselves 

 of its valuable skin. 



The situations in which the beavers build are very various. 

 Sometimes they take their abode in a pond or a lake, in which 

 the water is tolerably uniform in height and pretty deep imme- 

 diately under the bank ; but they generally make choice of a run- 

 ning stream as more convenient for the conveyance of their ma- 

 terials. They are also said to select in preference the northern 

 side for the advantage of the sun, and the bank of an island 

 rather than that of the mainland, as affording them greater se- 

 curity from the attacks of their enemies. In this selection, how- 

 ever, their instinct frequently misleads them, for they have been 

 known to build in situations where they have been unable to pro- 

 cure food, and where they have consequently perished from star- 

 vation, or to have fixed upon a stream which has been so swelled 

 by the effects of a heavy thaw as to sweep away not only their 

 magazine of provisions, but sometimes even their habitations. 



When the water in the stream is not sufficiently deep for their 

 purpose, or is liable to be diminished by the failure of the supply 

 from above in conseq-uence of frost, they commence their opera- 

 tions by throwing a dam across it below the part which they in- 

 tend to occupy. In slow rivulets this is made nearly straight ; 

 but where the current is strong, it is formed with a curve of 

 greater or less extent, the convexity of which is turned toward 

 the stream. The materials of which this dam is constructed con- 

 sist of drift-wood, and the branches of willows, birch, and pop- 

 lars, compacted together by mud and stones. The work is raised 

 in the form of a mound, of considerable thickness at the base, 

 and gradually narrowing toward the summit, which is made per- 

 fectly level, and of the exact height of the body of water which 

 it is intended to keep up. Cartwright adds that he has frequently 

 crossed the rivers and creeks upon these dams with only slightly 

 wetting his shoes. The sticks which are used in their construc- 

 tion vary in size from the thickness of a man's finger to that of 

 his ankle, but are seldom larger unless where no others are to be 



