AMPHIBIOUS QUADRUPEftS. 



the remote parts of America, we learn how far 

 instinct can be aided by imitation. We from 

 thence perceive to what a degree animals, with- 

 out language or reason, can concur for their mu- 

 tual advantage, and attain by numbers those ad- 

 vantages which each, in a state of solitude, seems 

 unfitted to possess. 



If we examine the beaver merely as an indivi- 

 dual, and unconnected with others of its kind, 

 we shall find many other quadrupeds to exceed it 

 in cunning, and almost all in the powers of an- 

 noyance and defence. The beaver, when taken 

 from its fellows, and kept in a state of solitude or 

 domestic tameness, appears to be a mild, gentle 

 creature, familiar enough, but somewhat dull, 

 and even melancholy ; without any violent pas- 

 sions or vehement appetites, moving but seldom, 

 making no efforts to attain any good, except in 

 gnawing the wall of its prison, in order to regain 

 its freedom ; yet this, however, without anger or 

 precipitation, but calm and indifferent to all about 

 it, without attachment or antipathies, neither 

 seeking to offend nor desiring to please. It ap- 

 pears inferior to the dog in those qualities which 

 render animals of service to man ; it seems made 

 neither to serve, to command, nor to have con- 

 nexions with any other set of beings, and is only 

 adapted for living among its kind. Its talents 

 are entirely repressed in solitude, and are only 

 brought out by society. When alone, it has but 

 little industry, few tricks, and without cunning 

 sufficient to guard it against the most obvious 

 and bungling snares laid for it by the hunter. 



