324 APPENDICES. 



procured. They are mostly obtained from the neighboring woods, 

 where they are cut with a dexterity truly astonishing. A beaver, 

 according to Cartwright, will lop off with its teeth at a single 

 effort a stem of the thickness of a common walking-stick as 

 cleanly as if it had been done by a gardener's pruning-knife. 

 When compelled to have recourse to the larger trunks, they gnaw 

 them round and I'ound, always taking care that they shall fall in 

 the direction of the water, in order as much as possible to save 

 themselves carriage. Judging from the number of large trees 

 sometimes cut down in a season, it would appear that the per- 

 formance of this operation cannot occupy a very considerable 

 time. As soon as the tree is felled they commence lopping off 

 its branches, which, as well as the smaller trunks, they cut into 

 lengths, according to their weight and thickness. These are 

 dragged in their mouths, and sometimes on their shoulders, to the 

 water side, where they are thrown into the stream, and towed 

 with the current to their destination. 



Exactly the same materials are employed in the construction 

 of their habitations. These are built either immediately beneath 

 the bank, or, if the pool be shallow, at some little distance from 

 it. They begin by hollowing out the bottom, throwing up the 

 mud and stones around it, and intermingling them with such 

 sticks as they can procure. The walls having been thus raised 

 to a sufficient height, the house is covered in with a roof in the 

 shape of a dome, generally emerging about four feet, but some- 

 times as much as six or seven, from the water. The entrance is 

 made beneath a projection which advances several feet into the 

 stream with a regular descent, terminating at least three feet be- 

 low the surface, to guard against its being frozen up. This is 

 called by the hunters the angle, and a single dwelling is some- 

 times furnished with two or more. Near the entrance, and on 

 the outside of their houses, the beavers store up the branches of 

 trees, the bark of which forms their chief subsistence during the 

 winter ; and these magazines are sometimes so large as to rise 

 above the surface of the water, and to contain more than a cart- 

 load of provisions. 



In all these operations there appears to be no other concert or 

 combination among the beavers than that which results from a 

 common instinct impelling them to the performance of a common 

 task. The assertion that they are superintended in their labors 



