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BEAVERS—THEIR WAYS. 10 
In a general description of the beaver with some 
brief remarks as to its habits and characteristics, the fol- 
lowing article on these most interesting of animals is 
from the pen of that noted wilderness traveler, Captain 
Jonathan Carver, of the ‘‘Provincial Troops of Amer- 
ica.’’ The book from which this extract is taken was 
published in 1802, being then in its fourth edition: the 
first edition being first published before the Revolutionary 
War for American Independence. Captain Carver’s 
description is correct for the most part and so plain, 
that its insertion is in proper order and will serve as a 
general text to the subjects that will be taken up in the 
succeeding chapters of this work. In treating on the 
beaver, Captain Carver writes as follows: 
‘‘This creature has been so often treated off, and 
his uncommon abilities so minutely described, that any 
further account of it will appear unnecessary; however, 
for the benefit of those of my readers who are not so 
well acquainted with the form and properties of this 
sagacious and useful animal. Ishall give a concise des- 
cription of it. The beaveris an amphibious quadruped, 
which cannot live for any long time in the water,and it 
is said is even able to exist entirely without it, provided 
it has the convenience of sometimes bathing itself. 
The largest beavers are nearly four feet in length, and 
about fourteen or fifteen inches in breadth over the. 
haunches; they weigh about sixty pounds. 
Its head is like that of the otter, but larger; its snout 
is pretty long, the eyes small, the ears short,round,hairy 
on the outside, and smooth within, and its teeth very 
long; the under teeth stand out of their mouths about 
the breadth of three fingers, andthe upper half a finger, 
