298 CAPTAIN CART WRIGHT'S 



a bed of sticks shred fine, under a bush near the 

 water-side, and there sleep: the first bed of this 

 kind which I found, I took to be the nest of a 

 goose. If the pond which they lived in the last 

 winter, has plenty of such food as they like, grow- 

 ing by the side of it, and they have not been dis- 

 turbed by man, they will seldom quit it; but if 

 there be a scarcity of food, they Avill wander about 

 in search of another, where they can be more 

 plentifully supplied: and it has long been ob- 

 served, that of all the trees which grow in New- 

 foundland or Labrador, they like the aspen ^ best, 

 and next to that the birch. Having found a place 

 convenient for the purpose, they connnonly begin 

 early in August to erect their house. Their mode 

 of constructing it I had from a very intelligent 

 observer, John Edwards, who has made the catch- 

 ing of them his whole employment for several 

 winters; in which time he has killed several hun- 

 dreds. He told me, if the pond be deep close to 

 the bank, and that free from rocks, they begin 

 under water, at the foot of the bank, and scoop 

 out a hole, rising gradually to the surface ; carry- 

 ing all the earth which they dig out there to the 

 top, and mix abundance of sticks, and even stones 

 among it. The sticks which they make use of on 

 this occasion, are of all sizes, from the thickness 

 of a man's ancle to his little finger, but very sel- 

 dom of larger dimensions. They pile up these 

 materials in the form of a dome, sometimes to the 

 height of six, or seven feet above the level of the 



* Populus tremuloides. 



