ANIMALS OP NORTH AMERICA. 63 



the most correct and free from exaggeration, which has ever 

 been published. 



" Where beavers are numerous they construct their habi- 

 tations upon the banks of lakes, ponds, rivers and small 

 streams ; but when they are at liberty to choose, they always 

 select places where there is sufficient current to facilitate the 

 transportation of food and other necessaries to their dwellings, 

 and where the water is so deep as not to be frozen to the 

 bottom during the winter. 



The beavers that build their houses in small rivers and 

 creeks, in which the water is liable to be drained off, when 

 the back supplies are dried up by the frost, are wonderfully 

 taught by instinct to provide against that evil, by making a 

 dam quite across the stream, at a convenient distance from 

 their houses. The beaver dams differ in shape according to 

 the nature of the place in which they are built. If the water 

 in the stream have but little motion, the dam is almost 

 straight; but when the current is more rapid, it is always made 

 with a considerable curve, convex toward the stream. The 

 materials made use of are drift wood, green willows, birch and 

 poplars, if they can be got ; also mud and stones, intermixed 

 in such a manner as must materially contribute to their 

 strength. In places which have been long frequented by 

 beavers undisturbed, their dams by frequent repairing, be- 

 come a solid bank, capable of resisting a great force both of 

 water and of ice. The beaver houses are built of the same 

 materials as the dams, and are always proportioned in size 

 to the number of inhabitants. Instead of order and regu- 

 lation being observed in rearing their houses, they are of 

 much ruder structure than their dams ; for it has never been 

 observed that they aim at any other convenience in their 

 houses, than to have a dry place to lie on. It frequently 

 happens that some of the larger houses are found to have one 

 or more partitions, if they deserve that appellation ; but it is 

 no more than a part of the main building, left by the sagacity 



