132 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



they may be said to erect villages : they prefer fixing 

 the site of their common habitation where they can have 

 deep water, and a current sufficiently strong to aid their 

 efforts in conveying wood and other suitable necessaries. 

 They seem also to be aware that, by selecting such spots, 

 the water is never frozen to the very bottom, even in the 

 most severe winters. Those communities, however, 

 which are established in small creeks, or rivers, in which 

 water is liable to be drained off, are endowed with a 

 wonderful instinct in providing againt the evil. They 

 erect a dam, at a convenient distance, quite across the 

 river, and vary its construction according to the nature 

 of the stream. If the water has little motion, the dam 

 is nearly straight ; but when the current is more rapid, 

 it is always made with a considerable curve, and convex 

 towards the stream, w^hich has thus but little power to 

 clestroy the works. The materials employed are large 

 and small pieces of wood, willow twigs, mud, and stones, 

 all intermixed in such a way as to give an equal strength 

 to all the parts. These dams, when not disturbed, be- 

 come, in process of time, solid banks, capable of resist- 

 ing a great force; and as the sprigs of willow, and other 

 trees, which are used, generally take root and shoot up, 

 they form a kind of regular planted hedge, which Hearne 

 mentions as having seen so tall, that birds have laid their 

 nests among the branches. 



The beaver houses, continues Hearne, are built of the 

 same materials as their dams ; the size is proportioned 

 to the number of inhabitants, which seldom exceeds 

 four that are old, and six or eight young ones. A 

 common roof contains several apartments, which have 

 no internal communication, and are each entered by a 

 door from the water. Hearne remarks, that the only 

 convenience which the beaver seeks to enjoy, is a dry 

 place to lie upon, and where it can take its food. ' In 

 buikUng their houses, the beavers lay most of the wood 

 crosswise and nearly horizontal, taking care to leave a 

 hollow or cavity in the middle ; and when any unne- 

 cessary branches project inward, they cut them off with. 



