THE BEAVER. 113 



fields, where they enjoy all the sweets of the spring. In 

 this season they pay occasional visits to their habitation, 

 but never reside in it. There, however, the females re- 

 main employed in suckling, tending, and rearing their little 

 ones, who are in a condition to follow them at the expira- 

 tion of a few weeks. They then, in their turn, go abroad, 

 where they feed on fish, or on the bark of young trees, 

 and pass the whole of their time upon the water or among 

 the woods. 



Winter is the season which is principally allotted for 

 hunting them, as it is then only that their fur is in perfec- 

 tion ; and when, after their fabrics are demolished, a great 

 number happen to be taken, their society is never restored ; 

 the few that have escaped captivity or death, disperse 

 themselves, and become houseless wanderers ; or concealed 

 in some hole under ground, and reduced to the condition 

 of other animals, they lead a timid life, no longer employ 

 themselves but to satisfy their immediate and most urgent 

 wants, no longer retain those faculties and qualities which 

 they eminently possess in a state of society. 



We meet with Beavers in America from the thirtieth de- 

 gree of north latitude to the sixtieth, and even beyond it. 

 In the northern parts they are very common ; and the far- 

 ther south we proceed, their number is still found to de- 

 crease. 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 

 formerly inhabited both England and Wales, but have 

 long been extinct in both. They must, however, have been 

 uncommon, as in the tenth century, the Welsh laws valued 

 a Beaver skin at the enormous sum of a hundred and 

 twenty pence. The ancients knew them ; and by the re- 

 ligion of the Magi it was forbidden to kill them. 



Several authors have said, that the Beaver, being an 

 aquatic animal, could not live solely on land. This opinion, 



