230 



Each republic has its peculiar district, and admits of no 

 accidental guests. 



When any great inundations damage the edifices of 

 the beavers, all the societies, without exception, unite 

 together for making the necessary repairs. If hunters 

 declare a cruel war against them, and entirely destroy 

 their banks and cottages, they disperse themselves about 

 the country, betake themselves to a solitary life, dig 

 burrows or trenches under ground, and never shew any 

 marks of that industry we have been admiring. 



1 7. Beavers seem to be formed with a view to con* 

 found our reasonings. Their associating themselves 

 into great bodies, for working in concert on their im- 

 mense works ; their separating into little families, or 

 particular societies, charged with the construction of 

 the huts; the nature f these works, their extent, soli- 

 dity, propriety, and appropriation, so conducive to one 

 general end, comprehending such a number of subordi- 

 nations: in a word, their almost perfect resemblance 

 with works erected by men with the same intent, all 

 concur to give the labour of the beavers an undoubted 

 superiority over that of the bees. In fact, to fell trees 

 chosen on purpose, to lop them, and cut off their pro- 

 jections, to make great cross pieces of timber of them, 

 disposing .them in their proper places; to cut smaller 

 trees like stakes, plant several rows of these stakes in a 

 river, and interlace them with branches of trees, in order 

 to strengthen and connect them together; to make 

 mortar, and with it solidly to compact the inside of the 

 pile : and to all this to add the form, proportions, and 

 solidity of a great bank; to form sluices thereon, and 

 open or shut them according to the water's elevation or 

 abatement ; to build behind the bank little houses, one 

 or more stories high, founded on an entire pile-work ; 

 to build them solidly without, and incrust or cement 

 them within by a layer of plaister, applied with equal 

 exactness and propriety ; to cover the flooring with a 



