242 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1771. backs on any occasion whatever, as it has a natural inclination 

 ecem er, ^^ bg^d downwards ; and it is not without some considerable 

 exertion that they can keep it from trailing on the ground. 

 This being the case, they cannot sit erect like a squirrel, which 

 is their common posture : particularly when eating, or when 

 they are cleaning themselves, as a cat or squirrel does, without 

 having their tails bent forward between their legs ; and which 

 may not improperly be called their trencher. 



So far are the beaver from driving stakes into the ground 

 when building their houses, that they lay most of the wood 

 crosswise, and nearly horizontal, and without any other order 

 than that of leaving a hollow or cavity in the middle ; when 

 any unnecessary branches project inward, they cut them off 

 with their teeth, and throw them in among the rest, to 

 prevent the mud from falling through the roof. It is a 

 mistaken notion, that the wood-work is first completed and 

 then plaistered ; for the whole of their houses, as well as their 

 dams, are from the foundation one mass of wood and mud, 

 mixed with stones, if they can be procured. The mud is 

 always taken from the edge of the bank, or the bottom of the 

 creek or pond, near the door of the house ; and though their 

 fore-paws are so small, yet it is held close up between them, 

 under their throat, [234] that they carry both mud and stones ; 

 while they always drag the wood with their teeth. 



All their work is executed in the night ; and they are so 

 expeditious in completing it, that in the course of one night 

 I have known them to have collected as much mud at their 

 houses as to have amounted to some thousands of their little 

 handfuls ; and when any mixture of grass or straw has 

 appeared in it, it has been, most assuredly, mere chance, owing 

 to the nature of the ground from which they had taken it. 

 i^s to their designedly making a composition for that purpose, 

 it is entirely void of truth. 



It is a great piece of policy in those animals, to cover, 

 or plaister, as it is usually called, the outside of their houses 



