68 COMMON BEAVER. 



pearance of ovens. The number in one place is gene- 

 rally from ten to thirty. If a colony of Beavers fix 

 their residence in the neighbourhood of a stream, which 

 they usually prefer to any other place, their first ope- 

 ration is to form a dam across it. This they always do 

 in the part which is most favourable for the purpose. 

 Their operations are commenced by driving stakes, ol 

 considerable length, into the ground, in different rows. 

 These they interweave with the branches of trees ; and 

 they fill up the spaces that are left, with clay, stones, and 

 sand. In these operations, as well as in carrying heavy 

 burdens, they are said, frequently, to employ their tails. 

 The houses are constructed of earth, stones, and sticks, 

 firmly cemented together, and plastered in the inside 

 with singular neatness. Some of the houses have only 

 one floor, others have three ; and the number of Beavers 

 in each house, is from two to thirty. The food of these 

 animals consists, principally, of the bark and tender 

 branches of trees, of which, in the autumn, they lay up 

 a considerable store, for their winter provision. They 

 breed about the end of June, and seldom produce more 

 than two young ones at a birth. Beavers are hunted for 

 the sake of their skins, immense numbers of which are, 

 every year, imported from Canada, and other northern 

 parts of America, into Europe. More than a hundred 

 thousand of these skins were collected in Canada, in the 

 year 1798, and sent into Europe and China. The flesh 

 of the Beaver is in great esteem as food ; and a drug, 

 called castor, is produced from its body. 



The body of this animal is about three feet in length. 

 The tail, which is nearly a foot long, is flat, naked, and 

 is marked into scaly divisions, like the skin of a fish. 

 The hair is fine, smooth, glossy, and of a dark brown, 

 or sometimes blackish colour. The hair is of two 



