242 
1771. 
ee 
December. 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
refpect to the beaver, which experience has prov- 
ed to the Indians never to vary or deceive them, 
that is by diflection; for on examining the womb 
of a beaver, even at a time when not with young, 
there is always found a hardifh round knob for 
every young fhe had at the laft litter. This is a 
circumftance I have been particularly careful to 
examine, and can affirm it to be true, from real 
experience. 
Moft of the accounts, nay I may fay all the 
accounts now extant, refpecting the beaver, are 
_ taken from the authority of the French who have 
refided in Canada; but thofe accounts differ fo 
much from the real ftate and ceconomy of all the 
beaver to the North of that place, as to leave 
great room to fufpect the truth of them altoge- 
ther. In the firft place, the affertion that they 
have two doors to their houfes, one on the land- 
fide, and the other next the water, is, as I have 
before obferved, quite contrary to fact and com- 
mon fenfe, as it would render their houfes of no 
ufe to them, cither as places of fhelter from the 
inclemency of the extreme cold in Winter, or as 
aretreat from their common enemy the quique- 
hatch. The only thing that could have made 
M. Du. Pratz, and other French writers, conjec- 
ture that fuch a thing did exift, muft have been 
from having feen fome old beaver houfes which 
had been taken by the Indians; for they are al- 
ways obliged to make a hole in one fide of the 
houfe 
