THE BEAVER. 109 



the top branches, to make it lie close and even, and serve 

 as the principal beam of their fabric. 



These operations are performed in common. At one 

 time a number of Beavers are employed together at the 

 foot of the tree in knavving it down; and, when this part 

 of their labor is accomplished, it becomes the business of 

 others to sever the branches, while a third party are enga- 

 ged along the borders of the river, or lake, in cutting other 

 trees, which, though smaller than the first tree, are yet as 

 thick as the leg, if not the thigh, of a common sized man. 

 These they carry with them by land to the brink of the 

 river, and then by water to the place allotted for their 

 building; where, sharpening them at one end, and forming 

 them into stakes, they fix them in the ground, at a small 

 distance from each other, and fill up the vacant spaces 

 with pliant branches. While some are thus employed in 

 the stakes, others go in search of clay, which they prepare 

 for their purpose with their tails and their feet, and with 

 which, brought home in large quantities, they render their 

 structure still more compact. 



This structure is so ingeniously contrived, that it has not 

 only all the extent, and all the solidity, which are requisite, 

 but also a form the most proper for confining the water, 

 and, when it has passed its bounds, for maintaining its 

 weight, or baffling its attacks. At the top of their dike or 

 mole, that is, at the part where it is least thick, they form 

 two or three openings. These they occasionally enlarge or 

 contract, as the river occasionally rises or falls ; and when, 

 from inundations either too powerful or too sudden, their 

 works have been damaged, they are, with the utmost dili- 

 gence and application, on the retreat of the waters, imme- 

 diately repaired. 



After this display of their labors to accomplish a public 

 work, it would be superfluous to add to it a description of 

 their private constructions, were it not that, in history, an 

 account should be given of everyfact, and that, in this first 



