INGENIOUS DEVICE OF THE TRAPPERS. 845 



ingenuity. The trappers, who hunt the beaver for the sake of his 

 fur, and the peculiar odoriferous secretion called castor, are more than 

 a match for all his artifices. Not even in winter-time is he safe from 

 their pursuit. Striking the ice smartly, they judge from the sound 

 whether they are near an aperture ; and as soon as they are satisfied, 

 cut away the ice and stop up the opening, so that the beavers, if 

 alarmed, may not escape into the water. They then proceed to the 

 shore, and by i-epeated soundings trace the course of the beavers' 

 subterranean passage, which is sometimes eight or ten yards long, and 

 by closely watching the different apertures invariably catch the 

 inhabitants. While thus engaged, they must be careful not to spill 

 any blood, as in case of such a mishap the rest of the beavers take 

 alarm, retreat to the water, and cannot be captured. The trappers 

 entertain a superstitious notion, which leads them to remove a knee- 

 cap from each beaver and throw it into the fire. 



The beavers generally quit their huts in the summer-time, though 

 one or two of the houses may be tenanted by a mother and her 

 young family. Those old beavers which are free from domestic ties 

 take to the water, and swim up and down the stream in bachelor-like 

 liberty until the month of August, when they return to a settled life. 

 There are, also, certain individuals called by the trappers " les 

 paresseux," or " the idlers," which do not live in houses, and construct 

 no dam, but dwell in subterranean tunnels like those of our common 

 water-rat. They are always males ; gay young bachelors, with no 

 incentives, we will suppose, to an industrious career. Neither in the 

 beaver nor in the human world, however, does idleness prosper, for 

 the capture of "les paresseux" is a comparatively easy task. 



South America is the home of those singular Edentate Mammals, 

 with scaly shields, which the natives call Tatous, but which are better 

 known to Europeans by the name of Armadillos (Priodonta gig as}. 

 Cuvier has divided the whole genus into five groups, distinguished 

 from one another by the number and form of their teeth and claws : 



" Cachecames," "Apars," "Encouberts," "Cabassous," and " Prio- 



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