240 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1771. each apartment, it is more than probable that each family 

 ^ '* knew its own, and always entered at their own door, without 

 having any farther connection with their neighbours than a 

 friendly intercourse ; and to join their united labours in 

 erecting their separate habitations, and building their dams 

 where required. It is difficult to say whether their interest 

 on other occasions was anyways reciprocal. The Indians of 

 my party killed twelve old beaver, and twenty-five young and 

 half-grown ones out of the house above mentioned ; and on 

 examination found that several had escaped their vigilance, 

 and could not be taken but at the expence of more trouble 

 than would be sufficient to take double the number in a less 

 difficult situation.* 



Travellers who assert that the beaver have two doors to 

 their houses, one on the land-side, and the other next the 

 [231] water, seem to be less acquainted with those animals 

 than others who assign them an elegant suite of apartments. 

 Such a proceeding would be quite contrary to their manner 

 of life, and at the same time would render their houses of no 

 use, either to protect them from their enemies, or guard them 

 against the extreme cold in Winter. 



The quiquehatches, or wolvereens, are great enemies to 

 the beaver ; and if there were a passage into their houses on 

 the land-side, would not leave one of them alive wherever they 

 came, 



I cannot refrain from smiling, when I read the accounts of 

 different Authors who have written on the oeconomy of those 

 animals, as there seems to be a contest between them, who 

 shall most exceed in fiction. But the Compiler of the 

 Wonders of Nature and Art seems, in my opinion, to have 

 succeeded best in this respect ; as he has not only collected all 

 the fictions into which other writers on the subject have run, 



* The difficulty here alluded to, was the numberless vaults the beaver had 

 in the sides of the pond, and the immense thickness of the house in some 

 parts. 



