S6 



COMMON BEAVER. 



but they are not fond of dry wood, and make 

 occasional excursions during: the winter season 



o 



for fresh provisions in the forests. It is in the 

 water, or near their habitations, that they estab- 

 lish their magazines. Each cabin has its own 

 magazine, proportioned to the number of its in- 

 habitants, who have all a common right to the 

 store, and never pillage their neighbours. Some 

 villages are composed of twenty or twenty-five 

 cabins, but such establishments are rare ; and the 

 common republic seldom exceeds ten or twelve 

 families, each of which has its own quarter of the 

 village, its own magazine, and its separate habita- 

 tion. They allow not strangers to settle in their 

 neighbourhood. The smallest cabins contain two, 

 four, or six ; and the largest, eighteen, twenty, 

 and, it is alleged, sometimes thirty, Beavers. 

 They are almost always equally paired, there be- 

 ing the same number of females as of males. 

 Thus, upon a moderate computation, the society 

 is often composed of 150 or 200, which all, at 

 first, laboured jointly, in raising the great public 

 building, and afterwards in select tribes or com- 

 panies, in making particular habitations. In this 

 society, however numerous, an universal peace is 

 maintained. Their union is cemented by com- 

 mon labours ; and it is rendered perpetual by mu- 

 tual convenience, and the abundance of provi- 

 sions which they amass and consume together. 

 Moderate appetites, a simple taste, an aversion 

 against blood and carnage, deprive them of the 

 idea of rapine and war. They enjoy every pos- 



