414 HISTORY' OF QUADRUPEDS. 



their mortal enemy the Quiquehatch or Wolverine, 

 which voracious animal, without these precautions, 

 would not leave one of them alive. The house con- 

 sists of one apartment, with only one entrance, 

 (which always leads to the water) and is made of a 

 size to accommodate one family, which in number 

 commonly amounts to about four old and six young 

 ones, seldom to fewer, but often to more. It is a 

 common plan with the society to have their houses 

 built one at the end of each other, under one roof, 

 but kept quite separate by the walls or partitions 

 between each. In them, after laying in a stock of 

 provisions, they lodge and sleep warmly and com- 

 fortably upon their mossy beds, during the long 

 winter months, and live upon the bark of trees and 

 branches, laid in store for that purpose; they also 

 eat a root something like a cabbage stalk, as well 

 as other kinds, which they seek under the ice, on 

 the sides and bottom of the river. Besides their 

 houses they have a number of holes, or vaults, in 

 the bank of the river, which serve them as places of 

 retreat, when any injury is offered to their houses, 

 and, in general, it is in these holes or vaults that 

 they are taken by the hunters, on account of their 

 skins, and by whom, in the winter, when they are 

 fat, they are esteemed delicious eating. The castor 

 produced by these animals is found in a liquid 

 state, in bags near the anus, about the size of an 

 egg; when taken off, the matter dries, and is re- 

 ducible to a powder, which is oily, of a sharp bitter 

 taste, and a strong disagreeable smell. These bags 

 are found indifferently in males and females, and 

 were formerly supposed to be the animal's testicles; 

 which, when pursued, it was said to bite off, and by 

 that means escape with its life. In winter they 



