306 CAPTAIN CARTWRIGHT'S 



one stroke, and as clean as if done by a gardener's 

 pruning-knife. It is the bark only of trees which 

 they eat, and seem to like that of the branches 

 best, though they will eat the rind of the trunks 

 also. Having felled a large tree, they lop off all 

 the branches, and those, as well as the bodies of 

 small trees, they cut up into lengths according 

 to their weight and thickness; the larger ones 

 they carry on their shoulders to the water side, 

 throw them in, and tow them to the place where 

 they are wanted; the long branches they drag 

 along in their mouths. They always cut on the 

 windward side of a pond, because, by swimming 

 along the shore before they land, they can wind 

 any enemy who may perchance be there; the wind 

 also assisting them to fell the tree towards the 

 water, and to tow the wood home. These crea- 

 tures begin to grow fat after the middle of July, 

 are in tolerable case by the end of August, and by 

 the end of September, are at their best, provided 

 they have good living and are not disturbed. 

 Those which feed upon bronze,^ particularly on 

 birch, are the most delicious eating of any animal 

 in the known world; but the flesh of those which 

 feed upon the root of the water lil}^, although it 

 makes them much fatter than any other food, has 

 a strong taste, and is very unpleasant. After 

 Christmas they begin to decline, and by May are 

 commonly poor; in these particulars they resem- 

 ble the porcupine, as they do in many other re- 

 spects. If their house is disturbed much before 



^ Or brouae, the tender shoots or twigs of shrubs and trees. 



