124 AMPHIBIOUS (QUADRUPEDS. 



tar on their tails, and with flakes between their teeth, to where they 

 are wanted. 



The dike being completed, they next ereft their feveral apartments, 

 which aie either round or oval, and divided into three ftories, one above 

 the other : the firft below the level of the caufeway, is for the mod part full 

 of water J the other two above it, that in cafe of the water's incrcafe, 

 they may move a ftory higher. If they find any little ifland contiguous 

 to their refervoir, tliey occupy it, and improve their dwelling. They 

 drive piles into the earth, to fecure their habitation againfi; the wind as 

 well as water. They make two apertures, at the bottom, to tiie ftreamj 

 one a paflage always kept neat and clean; the other for conveying foil 

 of all forts. A third opening or door- way, much higher, prevents their 

 being fhut up when the froft and fnow have clofed the apertures of the 

 lower floors. Sometimes they build on land ; but fink trenches five or 

 fix feet deep, to defcend into the water. 



In Auguft, or September, they begin to lay in {lores. During fummer, 

 they regale themfelves on the choiceft fruits and plants. In winter, their 

 provifions are the wood of the birch, the plane, and fomiC few other trees, 

 which they fteep in water in quantities proportioned to their numbers. 

 They cut down branches from three to ten feet in length. According to 

 fome curious naturalifts, the flock of timber for ten beavers, is about 

 thirty feet in a fquare furface, and ten in depth. They regularly take 

 out thofe parcels only which have been duly fleeped in the water, and 

 impartially divide it. 



The hunters, knowing that green wood is more acceptable to thena 

 than what is dry, plant a quantity of jit round their lodgments j and 

 when they come out to partake of it, catch them in fnares, or take them 

 by furprife. When the frofts are very fevere, they fometimes break a 

 large hole in the ice; and when the beavers refort thither for fi'efh air, 

 cither kill them with their hatchets, or cover the opening with a large 

 fubflantial net. After this, they iindermine the whole fabric; where- 

 ij|X)n the beavers fly with the utmoft precipitation to the water j and 

 plunging intQ the aperture, fall into the net, and are taken. 



THE 



