382 



HISTORY OF 



viintages which each i.i a state of solitude seems unfitted to 

 possess. 



If we examine the beaver merely as an individual, and uncon- 

 nected with others of its kind, we shall find many other quadru- 

 peds to exceed it in cunning, and almost all in the powers of 

 annoyance and defence. The beaver, when taken from its fel 

 lows, and kept in a state of solitude or domestic tameness, ap- 

 pears to be a mild gentle creature, familiar enough, but some- 

 what dull, and even melancholy; without any violent passions or 

 vehement appetites, moving but seldom, making no efforts to at- 

 tain any good, except in gnawing the wall of its prison, in order 

 to regain its freedom ; yet this, however, without anger or pre- 

 cipitation, but calm and indiflferent to all about, without attach- 

 ment or antipathies, neither seeking to offend nor desiring to 

 please. It appears inferior to the dog in those qualities which 

 render animals of service to man ; it seems made neither to 

 serve, to command, nor to have connections with any other set of 

 beings, and is only adapted for living among its kind. Its ta- 

 lents are entirely repressed in solitude, and are only brought out 

 by society. When alone, it has but little industry, few tricks; 

 and without cunning sufficient to guard it against the most obvi- 

 ous and bungling snares laid for it by the hunter. Far from at- 

 tacking any othtr animal, it is scarcely possessed of the arts of 

 defence. Preferring flight to combat, like all wild animals, it 

 only resists when driven to an extremity, and fights only when 

 its speed can no longer avail. 



But this animal is rather more remarkable for the singularity 

 of its conformation, than any intellectual superiorities it may 

 be supposed, in a state of solitude, to possess. The beaver is 

 the only creature among quadrupeds that has a flat broad tail, 

 covered with scales, which serves as a rudder to direct its mo- 

 tions in the water. It is the sole quadruped that has mem- 

 branes between the toes on the hind feet only, and none On the 

 fore feet, which supply the place of hands, as in the squirrel. 

 In short, it is the only animal that in its fore parts entirely re- 

 sembles a quadruped, and in its hinder parts seems to approach 

 the nature of fishes, by having a scaly tail. In other respects, 

 it is about two feet long, and near one foot high ; it is some- 

 what shaped like a rat, except the tail, which, as has been ob- 

 served, is flat and scaly, somewhat rcFembling a neat's tongue at 



