Bl& • ftiE PHILOSOPHY 



about three feet in length, and its tail, which is of an otzi 

 figure, and covered with fcales, is eleven inches long. He" 

 tifes his tail as a rudder to direiSl his courfe in the water. 

 In places much frequented b^ man, the beavers neither aflb- 

 cinte nor build habitations. But, in the northern regions 

 of both Continents, they allemble in the month of June or 

 July, for the purpofes of uniting into fociety and of build- 

 ing a city. From all quarters they arrive in numbers, and 

 foon form a troop of two or three hundred. The opera-* 

 tions and architecture of the beavers are fo well defcribed by 

 the Count de Buffon, that we fhall lay it before our readers 

 nearly in his own words. The place' of rendezvous, he re- 

 marks, is generally the Situation fixed upon for their eftablifh- 

 ment, and it is always on the banks of waters. If the waters 

 be fiat, and feldom rife above their ordinary level, as in 

 lakes, the beavers make no bank or dam. But in rivers or 

 brooks, where the water is fubjeft to rifings and fallings, they 

 build a bank, which traverfes the river from one fide to the 

 other, like a fluice, and is often from 80 to 100 feet long, by 

 10 or 12 broad at the bafe. This pile, for animals of fo 

 fmall a fize, appears to be enormous, and prefuppofes an in- 

 credible labour*. But the folidity with which the work is 

 confl:ru6led is ftill more aftonlfliing than its magnitude. The 

 part of the river v/here they eredt this bank is generally 

 fliallow. If they find on the m^argin a large tree, v/hich can be 

 made to fall into the river, they begin, by cutting it down, to 

 form the principal bafis of their work. This tree is often thick- 

 er than a man's body. By gnawing it at the bottom with their 

 four cutting teeth, they in a fliort time accomplifh their pur- 

 pofe, and alv/ays make the tree fall acrofs the river. They 

 next cut the branches from the trunk to make it lie level. 

 Thefe operations are performed by the joint induftry of the 

 ■whole community. Some of them at the fame time travdrfe 



* Tlie hriT^cft beavers weigh only 50 or Co pounds. 



