NATURAL HISTORY. Ii77 



The few that have escaped captivity or death, be- 

 come houseless wanderers ; or, concealed in some hole 

 under ground, and reduced to the condition 01* other 

 animals, they lead a timid life : they no longer em- 

 ploy themselves but to satisfy their immediate and 

 most urgent wants ; they no longer retain those facul- 

 ties and qualities which they so eminently possess in 

 a state of society. 



We meet with beavers in America from the thirtieth 

 degree of north latitude to the sixtieth, and even be- 

 yond it. In the northern parts they are very common ; 

 and the farther south we proceed, their number is still 

 found to decrease. The same observation holds with 

 respect to the Old Continent. We never find them 

 numerous but in the more northern countries ; and in 

 France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Egypt, they are 

 exceedingly rare : they were no strangers to the an- 

 cients ; and by the religion of the Magi it was forbid- 

 den to kill them. 



Several authors have said, that the beaver, being 

 an aquatic animal, could not live solely on land. 

 This opinion, however, is erroneous ; for tlie beaver 

 which I have in my possession having been taken 

 when quite young in Canada, and been always reared 

 in the house, not did know the water when he wa 

 brought to it, was afraid of it, and refused to go in- 

 to it. Even when first plunged into a bason there 

 was a necessity for keeping him in it by force. A few 

 minutes after, however, he became so well reconciled 

 to it, that he no longer discovered an aversion to his 

 new situation; and when, afterwards left to his liberty, 

 he frequently returned to it, and would even rojl about 

 in the dirt, and upon the wet pavement. One day he 

 hi? escape, and descended by a cellar stair-case 



