300 CAPTAIN CARTWRIGHT'S 



and do a little work upon it, young furriers are 

 frequently deceived thereby, supposing those 

 houses to be inhabited. Although they will some- 

 times continue in the same pond for three or four 

 years or more, yet they will frequently build 

 themselves a new house every year; at other 

 times they will repair an old one, and live in that; 

 and they often build a new house upon, or close 

 adjoining to an old one, making the two tops into 

 one, and cut a communication between the lodg- 

 ings: hence, I presume, arose the idea of their 

 having several apartments. When the pond is 

 not deep enough for them, they will throw a dam 

 across the mouth of the brook, by which it dis- 

 charges its water, to raise it to a sufficient height ; 

 making use of sticks, stones, mud, and sand for 

 this purpose. Some of these I have seen of great 

 length and strength, insomuch that I have walked 

 over them with the greatest safety, though not 

 quite dry-shod, if they be new, as the water al- 

 ways sheds over them, being on an exact level 

 from end to end. But if, notwithstanding the 

 stint, they cannot raise the water to a proper 

 depth, near the bank, they build their house in the 

 pond, at a few yards distance from the shore, be- 

 ginning at the bottom and hollowing it out as they 

 go on, for they must have about three feet depth 

 over the end of the angle, or the water would 

 freeze in it, and they could go neither in nor out. 

 If there be an island in the pond, they generally 

 make their house on that, being the safest place; 

 and by far the greatest number of houses are on 



