NORTHERN OCEAN 243 



every fall with fresh mud, and as late as possible in the 1771. 

 Autumn, even when the frost becomes pretty severe ; as by *""" ^' 

 this means it soon freezes as hard as a stone, and prevents 

 their common enemy, the quiquehatch, from disturbing them 

 during the Winter. And as they are frequently seen to walk 

 over their work, and sometimes to give a flap with their tail, 

 particularly when plunging into the water, this has, without 

 doubt, given rise to the vulgar opinion that they use their 

 tails as a trowel, with which they plaister their houses ; 

 whereas that flapping of the tail is no more than a custom, 

 which they always preserve, even when they become tame and 

 domestic, and more particularly so when they are startled. 



[235] Their food chiefly consists of a large root, something 

 resembling a cabbage-stalk, which grows at the bottom of the 

 lakes and rivers. They eat also the bark of trees, particularly 

 that of the poplar, birch, and willow ; but the ice preventing 

 them from getting to the land in Winter, they have not any 

 barks to feed upon during that season, except that of such 

 sticks as they cut down in Summer, and throw into the water 

 opposite the doors of their houses ; and as they generally eat 

 a great deal, the roots above mentioned constitute a chief part 

 of their food during the Winter. In Summer they vary their 

 diet, by eating various kinds of herbage, and such berries as 

 grow near their haunts during that season. 



When the ice breaks up in the Spring, the beaver always 

 leave their houses, and rove about the whole Summer, probably 

 in search of a more commodious situation ; but in case of not 

 succeeding in their endeavours, they return again to their old 

 habitations a little before the fall of the leaf, and lay in their 

 Winter stock of woods. They seldom begin to repair the houses 

 till the frost commences, and never finish the outer-coat till 

 the cold is pretty severe, as hath been already mentioned. 



When they shift their habitations, or when the increase 

 of their number renders it necessary to make some addition 

 to their houses, or to erect new ones, they begin felling 



