HABITS OF THE BEAVER. 79 



ther this is the case or not, I have myself seen the beaver 

 return to the water and plunge his tail into the stream, 

 and then resume his labor with renewed vigor ; and I 

 have also seen them, with their bodies on the bank, 

 thumping the water with their tails with a most comical 

 perseverance. 



The female seldom produces more thau three kittens at 

 a birth, but I know an instance where one was killed, with 

 young, having no less than eleven in her. They live to 

 a considerable age, and I once ate the tail of an " old 

 man" beaver whose head was perfectly gray with age, 

 and his beard was of the same venerable hue, notwith- 

 standing which his tail was as tender as a young racoon. 

 The kittens are as playful as their namesakes of the feline 

 race, and it is highly delightful to see an old one with 

 grotesque gravity inciting her young to gambol about her, 

 while she herself is engaged about some household work. 



The work of tracing and trapping the beaver has many 

 curious features. I pursued the usual method, which I 

 had learned from my father than whom a more success- 

 ful trapper never appeared-among the mountains. I fol- 

 lowed 'the stream, on the banks of which I had encamped, 

 keeping a sharp watch for " sign." If I saw a prostrate 

 cotton-wood tree, I examined if it was the work of the 

 beaver whether " thrown" for the purpose of food, or to 

 dam the stream. I also examined the tracks of the bea- 



