84 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Construction of dams, houses, &c. 



running through it; and their operations in ren- 

 dering this perfectly suitable for their habitations, 

 evince a degree of sagacity and intelligence, of 

 design and recollection, approaching in a surpris- 

 ing degree to the faculties of the human race. 



Having divided themselves into companies, 

 their first object is, to form a dam ; and this they 

 always do in the place most favourable for their 

 purpose, cutting down trees of great size, driving 

 stakes, five or six feet long, into the ground, in 

 different rows, and interweaving them with small 

 branches: they also fill up the interstices with 

 clay, stones, and sand ; which they ram so firmly 

 down, that though the dams are frequently a 

 hundred feet long, a man may walk over them 

 with perfect safety. These are ten or twelve feet 

 thick at the base ; gradually diminishing towards 

 the top, which is seldom more than two or three 

 feet across. They are exactly level from end to 

 end; perpendicular towards the stream; and 

 sloped on the outside, where grass soon grows, 

 and renders the earth more united and compact. 



After completing the mole, their next business 

 is to erect their houses. These are most ingeni- 

 ously constructed with earth, stones, and sticks, 

 cemented together, and plastered in the inside. 

 The walls are about two feet thick ; and the floors 

 so much higher than the surface of the water, as 

 always to preclude the danger of being flooded. 

 Some of the houses have only one floor ; others 

 have three, and Du Pratz informs us, that in one 



