NORTHERN OCEAN 239 



young ones ; though, by chance, I have seen above double that 1771. 



t_ December. 



number. 



[229] These houses, though not altogether unworthy of 

 admiration, fall very short of the general description given 

 of them ; for instead of order or regulation being observed 

 in rearing them, they are of a much ruder structure than 

 their dams. 



Those who have undertaken to describe the inside of 

 beaver-houses, as having several apartments appropriated to 

 various uses ; such as eating, sleeping, store-houses for provi- 

 sions, and one for their natural occasions, &c. must have been 

 very little acquainted with the subject ; or, which is still 

 worse, guilty of attempting to impose on the credulous, by 

 representing the greatest falsehoods as real facts. Many years 

 constant residence among the Indians, during which I had an 

 opportunity of seeing several hundreds of those houses, has 

 enabled me to affirm that every thing of the kind is entirely 

 void of truth ; for, notwithstanding the sagacity of those 

 animals, it has never been observed that they aim at any other 

 conveniences in their houses, than to have a dry place to lie 

 on ; and there they usually eat their victuals, which they 

 occasionally take out of the water. 



It frequently happens, that some of the large houses are 

 found to have one or more partitions, if they deserve that ap- 

 pellation ; but that is no more than a part of the main build- 

 ing, left by the sagacity of the beaver to support the roof. 

 On such occasions it is common for those [230] different 

 apartments, as some are pleased to call them, to have no 

 communication with each other but by water ; so that in fact 

 they may be called double or treble houses, rather than 

 different apartments of the same house. I have seen a large 

 beaver-house built in a small island, that had near a dozen 

 apartments under one roof: and, two or three of these only 

 excepted, none of them had any communication with each 

 other but by water. As there were beaver enough to inhabit 



