56 



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bottom. The beavers that build their houses 

 in small rivers, or creeks, in which water is 

 liable to be drained off when the back sup- 

 plies are dried up by the frost, are wonder- 

 fully taught by instinct to provide against 

 that evil by making a dam quite across the 

 river, 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 river, or 

 creek, have but little motion, the dam is 

 almost straight ; but where the current is 

 more rapid, it is always made with a con- 

 siderable 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 evidently contribute 

 to the strength of the dam ; but there is no 

 other order or method observed in the dams, 

 except that of the work being carried on 

 with a regular sweep, and all the parts being 

 made of equal strength. In places which 

 have been long frequented by beavers un- 

 disturbed, their dams, by frequent repairing, 

 become a solid bank, capable of resisting a 

 great force both of water and ice ; and as 

 the willow, poplar, and birch generally take 

 root and shoot up, they by degrees form a 

 kind of regular planted hedge, which I have 

 seen in some places so tall that birds have 

 built their nests among the branches. 



" The beaver-houses are built of the same 

 materials as their dams, and are always pro- 

 portioned in size to the number of inhabit- 

 ants, which seldom exceeds four old and six 

 or eight young ones ; though, by chance, I 

 have seen double the number. Instead of 

 order or regulation being observed in rearing 

 their houses, they are of a much ruder struc- 

 ture than their dams ; for, notwithstanding 

 the sagacity of these animals, it has never 

 been observed that they aim at any other 

 convenience in their houses than to have a 

 dry place to lie on ; and there they usually 

 eat their victuals, which they occasionally 

 take out of the water. It frequently hap- 

 pens that some of the large houses are found 

 to have one or more partitions, if they de- 

 serve that appellation, but it is no more than 

 a part of the main building left by the sa- 

 gacity of the beaver to support the roof. On 

 such occasions it is common for those differ- 

 ent apartments, as some are pleased to call 

 them, to have no communication with each 

 other but by water ; so that, in fact, they 

 may be called double or treble houses, rather 

 than different apartments of the same house. 



" So far are the beavers from driving stakes 

 into the ground when building their houses, 

 that they lay most of the wood crosswise, 

 and nearly horizontal, and without any other 

 order than that of leaving a hollow or cavity 

 in the middle. When any unnecessary 

 branches project inward they cut them off 

 with their teeth, and throw them in among 

 the rest, to prevent the mud from falling 

 through the roof. It is a mistaken notion 

 that the wood-work is first completed and 

 then plastered ; for the whole of their houses, 

 as well as their dams, are, from the founda- 

 tion, one mass of mud and wood mixed with 

 stones, if they can be procured. The mud 



is always taken from the edge of the bank, 

 or the bottom of the creek or pond near the 

 door of the house ; and though their fore- 

 paws are so small, yet it is held close up 

 between them under their throat : thus they 

 carry both mud and stones, while they al- 

 ways drag the wood with their teeth. All 

 their work is executed in the night, and they 

 are so expeditious that, in the course of one 

 night, I have known them to have collected 

 as much as amounted to some thousands of 

 their little handfuls. It is a great piece of 

 policy in these animals to cover the outside 

 of their houses every fall with fresh mud, 

 and as late as possible in the autumn, even 

 when the frost becomes pretty severe, as by 

 this means it soon freezes as hard as a stone, 

 and prevents their common enemy, the 

 wolverene, from disturbing them during the 

 winter ; and as they are frequently seen to 

 walk over their work, and sometimes to give 

 a flap with their tail, particularly when 

 plunging into the water, this has, without 

 doubt, given rise to the vulgar opinion that 

 they used their tails as a trowel, with which 

 they plastered their houses ; whereas that 

 flapping of the tail is no more than a custom 

 which they always preserve, even when they 

 become tame and domestic, and more par- 

 ticularly so when they are startled." 



In the more northern climates the habita- 

 tions of these animals are finished in August, 

 or early in September, when they begin to 

 lay in their stores. During the summer 

 months they regale themselves on the 

 choicest fruits and plants the country af- 

 fords ; but in winter they subsist principally 

 on the wood of the birch, the plane, and 

 some other trees, which they steep in fresh 

 water from time to time. Those who are 

 accustomed to hunt these animals, being 

 perfectly aware that green wood is much 

 more grateful to them than that which is 

 old and dry, place a considerable quantity 

 round their lodgments ; and when they sally 

 forth to seize it, either catch them in snares, 

 or take them by surprise. When the frost 

 is very severe, the hunters sometimes break 

 large holes in the ice ; and, on the Beavers 

 resorting to these apertures to breathe the 

 fresh air, they either kill them with their 

 hatchets, or cover the holes with large sub- 

 stantial nets. This being done, they under- 

 mine and subvert the whole fabric ; when 

 the beavers, expecting to make their escape 

 in the usual way, fly with precipitation to 

 the water, and, rushing to the opening, fall 

 directly into the net. 



The Beaver is pursued both for its fur, and 

 for the sake of a peculiar odoriferous secre- 

 tion, termed castor, or castoreum, which is 

 contained in two little bags, the inguinal 

 glands, each about the size of a hen's egg. 

 This substance, as we find it in the shops, is 

 of a brownish unctuous consistence, has a 

 disagreeable narcotic smell, and a nauseous 

 acrid taste : it was at one time esteemed as 

 possessing considerable medicinal properties, 

 but is now chiefly employed by perfumers. 

 The fur was formerly a most important ar- 

 ticle of commerce ; but the animals have in 

 recent times been exterminated from so 

 many extensive tracts which they once in- 



