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Beaver, struct their cabins. These are partly excavations in 

 the ground, though their roofs form a sort of vault- 

 ed dome, that rises a little above the surface. They 

 are formed of the same materials as the dams, but, 

 according to Mr Hearne, they by no means exhibit 

 that neatness and architectural skill for which they 

 have been celebrated by Buffon and other French wri- 

 ters. Mr Hearne assures us, that the houses have sel- 

 dom more than one apartment, and never more than one 

 floor, which is raised in the middle, to allow of the 

 inhabitants eating and sleeping in a dry situation. 

 The principal entrance and outlet to these houses is 

 next the water, on the very edge of which they are 

 constructed; and the opening always slopes towards 

 the water, till it terminates so far below its surface, 

 as to preserve a free communication in the most se- 

 vere frosts. Some writers affirm, that this is the on- 

 ly opening to the house ; but as the animals cannot 

 live without free air, we must assent to those who 

 describe another, though smaller, opening next the 

 land. The houses are of various sizes, in proportion 

 to the number of their inhabitants, which seldom ex- 

 ceeds ten or twelve, though sometimes double that 

 number has been discovered in the same dwelling. 

 Many of these houses stand together along the mar- 

 gin of the water, forming a village of from ten to 

 thirty tenements. 



During the latter end of summer, the beavers cut 

 down their wood, and collect their roots. The for- 

 mer is kept in the water, whence they fetch it as oc- 

 casion may require. In eating, they sit on their 

 rump like a squirrel, with their tail doubled in be- 

 tween their hind legs, and holding their food be- 

 tween their paws. When disturbed, they utter a 

 peculiar cry, and plunge into the water, flapping 

 the ground and the water with their tail. This flap- 

 ping of the tail, which is a very common custom 

 with these animals, is considered by some writers as 

 a premeditated signal to their associates. 



Beavers are hunted both for their fur, which is 

 very soft and glossy, and for that peculiar drug called 

 Casior, which is not an organ peculiar to the male, 

 as was once supposed, but a particular secreted mat- 

 ter, contained in little bags below the tail, and found 

 in both sexes. (See Castor.) Winter is the season 

 chosen by the hunters for attacking the settlements 

 of their prey. They either block up the openings 

 next the water with stakes, and enlarge the other 

 opening so far as to admit their dogs ; or they drain 

 off the water by breaking down the dam, and then, 

 securing the holes of the cabins by means of nets, 

 lay them open at the top, and catch the beavers as 

 they endeavour to escape. 



Many thousand beaver skins are annually brought 

 to market ; and we are told, that not fewer than fifty- 

 four thousand have been disposed of by the Hud- 

 son's-bay Company at one sale. Those skins are 

 said to be in most esteem which have been -worn for 

 some time by the Indians, as the coarse long hair 

 falls off by use, and there is left only the short soft 

 down for which alone the furs are valued. 



The fullest account of the manners and habits of 

 the beaver has been given by Buffon in his Natural 

 History of Quadrupeds, and Du Pratz, in his His- 



tory of Louisiana ; but for the most accurate history Beccaria. 

 of this animal, we may refer our readers to Captain 

 Cartwright's Journal of Transactions, fyc. on the 

 Coast of Labrador, and Mr Hearne's Journey to the 

 Northern Ocean, (y) 



BECCARIA, Giovan Batista, a celebrated 

 electrician of the preceding century, was born at 

 Mondovi, in Italy, on the 3d of October 1710. 

 We are told that he sprung from a creditable family, 

 and that his brother Giuseppe Maria, and an uncle 

 by the father's side, were both military officers. The 

 first studies of Boccaria were prosecuted in the royal 

 seminaries of his country, where, along with litera- 

 ture, he imbibed that love of retirement which so 

 materially aids its cultivation ; and scarcely had he at- 

 tained the age of sixteen, when he repaired to Rome, 

 for the purpose of adopting the religious habit. He 

 accordingly became a monk of an order of regulars 

 in the Scudlc Pie, where he designed to complete 

 his learning : but, urged by the influence of natural 

 genius, he was diverted from the obscurities of scho- 

 lastic inquiries to the more luminous paths of philo- 

 sophy, in which he made rapid progress. He had 

 scarcely terminated his own studies, when he was cr.lltd 

 upon to teach the belles lettrcs in the Collegio d' Urbi- 

 no, one of the principal rank ; and the talents and 

 diligence which he displayed in his new office, amply 

 justified the choice made by his superiors. Beccaria 

 at this period produced some elegant compositions in 

 Latin verse, which are disseminated in various col- 

 lections. He admired poetry ; and the works of 

 Catullus, Virgil, and Dante, were the inseparable 

 companions of his leisure hours. His admiration, 

 however, of the more enlarged and solid field of ma- 

 thematics and physics predominating over the fictions 

 of poetry, he resolved thenceforward to devote him- 

 self to them exclusively. He found an opportunity 

 of lecturing on these subjects, first in the Royal 

 College of Palermo, and afterwards in the public 

 schools of St Calasanzio in Rome, where his lectures 

 were esteemed full of useful and curious information. 

 Beccaria had likewise the good fortune to be em- 

 ployed in some public commissions, which were sa- 

 tisfactorily discharged by him ; and, in particular, 

 when the Augustine monks erected a great fabric 

 which obscured a Portuguese church, he had to cal- 

 culate the number of hours in a year that the light 

 was taken away, as compensation was to be made in 

 money. He testified much zeal in inculcating the 

 principles of science into youth; and although those 

 in Rome capable of teaching were greater mathe- 

 maticians, as Boscovich, Jacquier, and Le Sieur, he 

 was perhaps better qualified for observing the opera- 

 tions of nature, and unfolding them to his pupils. 



Beccaria's fame having reached the ears of his so- 

 vereign, he was, in 1748, appointed to fill the chair 

 of natural philosophy in the Royal University of 

 Turin, with which he received a considerable salary. 

 On being requested by the grand duke of Savoy to 

 repeat Needham's microscopical observations, he a- 

 dapted a reflector to the solar microscope, which threw 

 the object on a horizontal surface. Not long after- 

 wards, directing his attention to correct the errors 

 produced by pendulums from contraction and expan- 



