-229 



much with regard to the young that is to he hatched' 

 from them, as she has the mothers of other animals in 

 favour of their offspring. 



1 6. Of all animals that live in society, none approach 

 nearer to human understanding than beavers. We are 

 at a loss to determine what is most worthy of admira- 

 tion hi their labours, whether the grandeur and solidity 

 of the undertaking, or prodigious art, fine views, and 

 general design, so excellently displayed throughout every 

 part of their execution. A society of beavers seem to 

 be an academy of engineers, that proceed on rational 

 plans, which they rectity or modify as they judge neces- 

 sary, pursuing them with as much constancy as preci- 

 sion ; all are animated by the same spirit, and unite 

 their will and strength for the promoting one common 

 end, which is always the general good of the society: 

 in a word, we must be witnesses of their performances, 

 before we can judge them capable of them. A' traveller 

 that is ignorant .of them, and happens to meet with their 

 habitations, will think, he is among a. nation of very in- 

 dustrious savages. 



The mole, or bank, which they raise, is a work of im- 

 mense labour ; and it is inconceivable how brutes are 

 able to project, begin, and complete it. Represent to 

 yourself a river of fourscore or a hundred feet, in width. 

 Their first business is to break the force of the current: 

 the beavers then throw up a bank, or causeway, eighty or 

 a hundred -feet in length, by ten or twelve feet at its base. 

 Nothing is more certain than this, nor less likely ; and. 

 when we have repeatedly seen it, we are still willing to 

 renew our inspection of it, in order to enforce our 

 belief. 



The most considerable towns of the beavers consist 1 ' 

 of twenty or twenty-rive lodgments, though such are 

 but rare ; the most common have only tea or twelve. 



JL 6 



