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of Oware was more than compensated by the merits of the 

 Agrostographie. At the time of its publication all that 

 related to the systematic arrangement of grasses was in 

 great disorder. The genera of this important natural 

 order, with the exception of what had been done by Dr. 

 Robert Brown in his Prodromus Floret Novce Hottandice 

 (and this had been well done), were nearly as they had been 

 left by Linnaeus, although the number of species had prodi- 

 giously increased. It was necessary to recast the whole 

 order ; in doing which new principles had to be established, 

 and antient prejudices to be unsparingly attacked. This 

 was done by Palisot de Beauvois in a manner which re- 

 flected the greatest honour both upon his skill and know- 

 ledge. It is true that men like Smith, and those of his 

 retrogressive school, cried out at the innovations of this 

 bold reformer, and were amazed at the unceremonious man- 

 ner with which what they had imagined imperishable was 

 assailed : all their criticisms, protests, sneers, and anathemas 

 were in vain ; the public accepted the new arrangement, 

 and it has become the basis of the more perfect system, 

 which at this day seems to be everywhere recognized as 

 the most conformable to reason and to nature. 



If Palisot de Benuvois cannot be said to have been one 

 of the great luminaries which cast a light over the whole 

 extent of science, he certainly deserves the praise of having 

 been a sensible, well-informed, and skilful naturalist, who 

 did well what he undertook, and a most zealous and intrepid 

 traveller, whom neither danger nor difficulty could deter. 

 He was handsome in person, gentlemanly in deportment, 

 mild in manner, and indefatigable in his labours, and he 

 deserves to be recorded as one of those who have the most 

 contributed to the progress of natural science in these latter 

 days. 



His biography, strictly speaking, ought to have been 

 Given under Palisot ; but we are unwilling to separate it too 

 widely from the genus (BELVISIA) which has been so named 

 to commemorate his merits. 



(Bingraphie UniverseUe; Flore d Oware; and Essai 

 \ouvelle Agrostographie.) 



BRAVER (Zoology), the English name for the genus 

 C'a.5<or(Cuv.),oneof the order of rodent or gnawing animals 

 (Rodentia, Cuv., Glires, Linn.), with two incisor, or cutting 

 teeth, and eight molars in each jaw, twenty in all; and 

 particularly distinguished from all the rest of that order 

 by a broad, horizontally flattened tail, which is nearly oval 

 and covered with scales. There are five toes on each of the 

 feet, but those of the hinder ones only are webbed, the 

 webs extending beyond the roots of the nails. The second 

 toe of these last is furnished with a double nail, or rather 

 with two, one like those of the other toes, and another beneath 

 it, situated obliquely with a sharp edge directed downwards. 

 There is also, as Dr. Richardson observes, a less perfect 

 double nail on the inner toe of the hind feet. 



The incisor teeth of the beaver are broad, flattened, and 

 protected anteriorly by a coat of very hard orange-coloured 

 enamel, the rest of the tooth being of a comparatively soft 

 substance, whereby a cutting, chisel-like edge is obtained ; 

 and, indeed, no edge tool, with all its combination of hard 

 and soft metal, could answer the purpose better. In fact, 

 the beaver's incisor tooth is fashioned much upon the same 

 principle as that followed by the tool-maker, who forms a 

 cutting instrument by a skilful adaptation of hard ond soft 

 materials till he produces a good edge. 



But the natural instrument has one great advantage over 

 the artificial tool; for the former is so organized that, as 

 fast as it is worn away by use, a reproduction and protrusion 

 from the base takes place, and thus the two pair of chisel- 

 teeth working opposite to each other are always kept in 

 good repair, with their edges at the proper cutting angle. 

 When injury or disease destroys one of these incisors, its 

 antagonist, meeting with no check to resist the protrusion 

 from behind, is pushed forward into a monstrous elongation. 

 SD hard is the enamel, and so good a cutting instrument is 

 the incisor tooth of the beaver, that, when fixed in a wooden 

 hamlle, it was, according to Dr. Richardson, used by the 

 Northern Indians to cut bone, and fashion their horn-tipped 

 spenrs, &c.,till it was superseded by the introduction of iron, 

 when the beaver-tooth was supplanted by the English file. 



The power of these natural tools is well described by 

 Lewis and Clarke, who gaw their effects on the banks of 

 the Missouri. 'Tho ravages of the beaver,' say they, 'are 

 very apparent : in one place the timber was entirely pros- 

 trated for a space of three acres in front on the river and 



one in depth, and great part of it removed, although tho 

 trees were in large quantities, and some of them as thick as 

 the body of a man.' 



Dr. Richardson thus speaks of this part of their opera- 

 tions : 'When the beaver cuts down a tree it gnaws it all 

 round, cutting it however somewhat higher on the one side 

 than the other, by which the direction of its fall is deter- 

 mined. The stump is conical, and of such a height as a 

 bearer, sitting on his hind quarters could make. The largest 

 tree I observed cut down by them, was about the thickness 

 of a man's thigh (that is, six or seven inches in diameter), 

 but Mr. Graham says, that he has seen them cut a tree 

 which was ten inches in diameter.' The beavers have no 

 canine teeth. F. Cuvier once thought that the molars had 

 no true roots, but that they were increased from their bases 

 like the incisors. The source of his error was a skull in 

 which the molars were not entirely developed ; hut he has 

 since admitted that they have roots, and that they are inca- 

 pable of additional growth when once entirely formed. 



AMERICAN BEAVER. 



The American Beaver, Castor Fiber of Linnaeus, Castor 

 Americanus of F. Cuvier, Ammisk of the Cree Indians, and 

 Tsnutayc of the Hurons, is the animal of whose sagacity, 

 and even social polity, such wonderful tales have been told. 

 It has been represented as an accomplished architect, gifted 

 by Nature with a head to design and instruments to execute 

 well-planned houses containing chambers, each set apart 

 for its appropriate purpose. The lovers of the marvellous, 

 when they had once given the reins to their imagination, 

 soon converted its tail into a sledge and a trowel, and asto 

 nished the world with an elaborate account of the mode in 

 which the plaster was laid on with this, according to them, 

 masonic implement: nay, they even turned it into an in- 

 strument of office. With it the overseers (such officers, ac- 

 cording to the accounts given of their civil institutions, it 

 was the custom of the community of beavers to appoint) 

 were said to give the signal to the labourers whose employ- 

 ments they superintended, by slapping it on the surface of 

 the water. All this, and more than this, has faded away 

 before the light of truth. Their houses have sunk into rude 

 huts, in the construction of which their tails are never used, 

 their pile-driving (for, among other feats, they were said to 

 drive stakes of the thickness of a man's leg three or four 

 feet deep into the ground) has turned out to be a mere fable, 

 and their polity has proved to bo nothing more than a com- 

 bination of individuals, such as we see among many of the 

 inferior animals, impelled by an instinct common to all to 

 perform a task in the benefit of which all participate. 



But, after discarding all exaggerations, there remains 

 enough to make the works actually carried on by these 

 animals a subject of deep interest, as we shall presently see. 



Where there has been so much fable it becomes of im- 

 portance to select that account of the habits of the beaver 

 which accords with fact. Such an account, from the testi- 

 mony of those best informed on the subject, is to be found 

 in Hearne ; and as Dr. Richardson, who had the best op 



NO. 220. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPEDIA.] 



VOL. IV. R 



