HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. -. - . 343 



V. 



the Rodentia, which has wholly disappeared from Eur.ope, and is 

 yearly growing scarcer in America. 



The Beaver (Castor fiber} is specially recognizable by his broad 

 horizontally-flattened tail, which is of a nearly oval form, but slightly 

 convex on its upper surface, and covered with scales. His hind feet 

 are webbed, and together with the tail, which acts as a rudder, 

 propel him through the water with ease and swiftness. His length,' 

 exclusive of his tail, which measures one foot, is about three feet.; 

 colour, a deep chestnut ; hair, very fine, glossy, and smooth. The 

 incisor teeth are large, and so hard 1 , that the North American Indians 

 used them in fabricating their horn-tipped spears and cutting bone, 

 until iron tools were introduced from Europe. 



The sagacity with which he constructs his habitation has long 

 been a theme of eulogy, and has furnished moralists with many an 

 apt image and pregnant illustration. Water is the necessity of his 

 life. It is indispensably necessary that the stream near which the 

 animal lives should never run dry ; and to prevent so dire a mis- 

 fortune, he is gifted with an instinct which teaches him to keep the 

 water at or about the same mark, by building a dam across the 

 channel. 



In order to comprehend the art with which this dam is con- 

 structed, we must watch the beaver at his patient toil.* 



When the animal has fixed upon a tree which he believes 

 suitable for his purpose, he sits upright, and with his chisel-like 

 teeth cuts a bold groove completely round the trunk. He then 

 widens the groove in exact proportion to its depth, so that when the 

 tree is nearly cut through, it somewhat resembles the "contracted 

 portion of an hour-glass." When this stage has been reached, he 

 looks anxiously at the tree, and views it on every side, as if to 

 measure the direction in which it should fall. Having settled this 

 question, he goes to the opposite side, and with two or three 

 powerful bites cuts away the wood, so that the overbalanced tree 

 comes to the ground. 



* Rev. J. G. Wood, " Homes Without Hands." 



