THE BEAVER. 36 1 



up the mud with the rest of the materials, and in all the other 

 operations of the beaver, are the fore-paws and the mouth ; and 

 it is sufficiently obvious that neither with their assistance, nor 

 indeed with the united powers of all their organs, could these 

 animals drive stakes as thick as a man's leg three or four feet 

 deep into the ground, or execute a variety of other feats for 

 which they have obtained general credit. The sticks and 

 branches which they use, instead of being driven into the 

 ground, are principally laid in a horizontal direction, and they 

 are only prevented from floating away by the stones and mud 

 which the beavers bring in their paws to lay upon them, and 

 which gradually become cemented into a firm and compact 

 mass. All their work is performed during the night. Although 

 the favourable nature of the situation may have led many 

 families to assemble in the same spot, they do not on that 

 account carry on their operations in common 5 unless when 

 a dam of large extent is to be built, when they usually co- 

 operate for its completion. Each family occupies itself exclu- 

 sively on its own habitation, which generally has only one 

 chamber. The idea of their houses having several chambers 

 for different purposes, may have arisen from the fact of their 

 sometimes building by the side of a deserted dwelling, with 

 which they occasionally open a communication. The families 

 vary in the number of individuals of which they are composed, 

 but seldom exceed two or four old ones, and twice as many 

 young ; the females producing once a year, from two to four 

 at a birth, and the young ones generally remaining till they are 

 three years old, when they quit their parents, and seek out or 

 build a separate habitation for themselves." Mr. Greenhow 

 says, that since Lower Canada has become so much colonised, 

 these shy and timid animals have discontinued building huts 

 near each other, thus forming beaver-villages, but now live 

 solitary in holes on the wooded banks of secluded villages, 

 " In summer they feed either upon the bark of trees, or upon 

 the green herbage and berries -, but in winter their diet* is almost 

 restricted to the former, of which they lay in a large stock 



