CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 7. RODENTIA. 385 



area, formed by the crossed brushes and the wall, he would fill up with hand-brushes, rush- 

 baskets, books, boots, sticks, clothes, dried turf, or any thing portable. 



"As the work grew high, he supported himself upon his tail, which propped him up admirably, 

 and he would often, after laying on one of his building materials, sit up over against it, appearing 

 to consider his work, or as the country people say, 'judge it.' This pause was sometimes followed 

 by changing the position of the material '•judged,' and sometimes it was left in its place. After 

 he had piled up his materials in one part of the room, for he generally chose the same place, he 

 proceeded to wall up the space between the feet of a chest of drawers which stood at a little dis- 

 tance from it, high enough on its legs to make the bottom a roof for him, using for this purpose 

 dried turf and sticks, which he laid very even, and filling up the interstices with bits of coal, hay, 

 cloth, or any thing he could pick up. This last place he seemed to appropriate for his dwelling ; 

 the former work seemed to be intended as a dam. 



"When he had walled up the space between the feet of the chest of drawers, he proceeded to 

 carry in sticks, clothes, hay, and cotton, and to make a nest, and when he had clone, he would 

 sit up under the drawers and comb himself with the nails of his hind-feet. In this operation, that 

 which appeared at first to be a malformation was shown to be a beautiful adaptation to the ne- 

 cessities of the animal. The huge webbed hind-feet of the beaver turn in so as to give the appear- 

 ance of deformity; but if the toes were straight, instead of being incurved, the animal could not 

 use them for the purpose of keeping its fur in order, and cleansing it from dirt and moisture. 



"Binny generally carried small and light articles between his right fore-leg and his chin, walk- 

 ing on the other three legs; large masses, which he could not grasp readily with his teeth, he 

 pushed forward, leaning against them with his right fore-paw and his chin. He never carried 

 any thing on his tail, which he liked to dip in water, but he was not fond of plunging in the 

 whole of his body. If his tail was kept moist, he never cared to drink; but if it was kept dry, it 

 became hot, and the animal appeared distressed, and would drink a great deal. It is not impos- 

 sible that the tail may have the power of absorbing water like the skin of frogs, though it must 

 be owned that the scaly integument which invests that member has not much of the character 

 which generally belongs to absorbing surfaces. 



"Bread, milk, and sugar formed the principal part of Binny's food, but he was very fond of 

 succulent fruits and roots. He was a most entertaining creature, and some highly comic scenes 

 occurred between the worthy but slow beaver, and a light and airy macauco that was kept in 

 the same apartment." 



The history of the beaver, in connection with man, is a tale of persecution and destruction for 

 twenty centuries or more, without the mitigation, as in the case of domestic animals, of services 

 rendered in its behalf. The beaver is everywhere a wild animal, and yet entirely inoffensive, 

 offering no provocation by attacking either the life, comfort, or industry of man. But it offers 

 the extraordinary temptations of edible flesh, a precious drug, and an almost priceless pelt! For- 

 merly, it built its villages in all the north of Europe, in the same manner, and doubtless in as 

 great numbers, as in North America. It was then the gentle, ingenuous, thrifty possessor of the 

 banks of rivers, and streams, and lakes, and ponds, in the boundless wilds yet unknown to man. 

 How secure, how ample its dominions then; how narrow its tenements, how persecuted its exist- 

 ".ice now! Wherever it may be every man's hand is raised against it. Hunters and trappers 

 tursue it to its most hidden retreats; every crafty device is employed for its capture. If it lingers 

 ■*et in its old haunts — possessed in fee by its ancestors for thousands of years — now in the vicin- 

 ty of human settlements, it is as a timid, trembling, and almost solitary fugitive, venturing abroad 

 mly at night, and then with the consciousness that every step is taken in peril of its life. 



It has been made a matter of question whether the European beaver is of the same species as 

 he American. It is said that along the Rhine, Danube, and other rivers of Europe, it does not 

 ,ssociate and build huts as in America, but lives in burrows, like the musk-rat. There can be no 

 oubt, that being greatly reduced in numbers, and annoyed by the vicinity of man — whose culti- 

 ation comes to the doors of its retreat — it has in some degree changed its natural habits. Pink- 

 rton gives the following translation from a Swedish writer of 1*767, describing the beaver of the 

 ; Vol. I.—49 



