Ss A St 7B OO em. 
have had from Awerica. ‘They -certainly-are not found in the iflands 
of the new Archipelago; nor yet in Kemt/fchatka™, by reaifon of the 
Anterruption of woods, beyond the river Konyma. From thence I 
doubt whether they are met with aflociated, or in a civilized ftate, 
nearer than the banks of the river Fenefez, or the Konda, and other 
rivers which run into the Ody: but they are found fcattered in the 
woody parts of independent Zartary; alfo in Cafan, and about the 
Yaik, in the Orenburg government. In the fame unfociable ftate they 
inhabit Europe, and are found in Rafia, in Lapland, Norway, and 
Sweden. 
Thefe are the moft fagacious and induftrious of animals. They 
live in fociety, and unite in their labors, for the good of the com- 
monwealth they form. They erect edifices, fuperior in contrivance 
to the human beings. They ufually live near, and fhew a dexterity 
in their ceconomy unequalled ‘by the four-footed race. 
fn order to form a habitation, they fele& a level piece of ground, 
with a fmall rivulet running in the midft. To effec their works, a 
community of two or three hundred affembles: ‘every individual 
bears his fhare in the laborious preparation. Some fall trees of great 
fize, by gnawing them afunder with their teeth, in order to form 
beams or piles; others are employed in rolling the pieces te the wa~ 
ter; others dive, and fcrape holes with their feet in order to fix them ; 
and another fet exert their efforts to rear them in their proper places. 
A fifth party is bufied in collecting twigs to wattle the piles. A fixth, 
in collecting earth, ftones, and clay; others carry it on their broad 
tails to proper places, and with their feet beat and temper the earth 
. into mortar, or ram it between the piles, or plaifter the infide of the 
houfes. 
All thefe preparations are to form their dwellings within an arti- 
ficial piece of water or pond, which they make by raifing a dam 
acrofs the level {pot they had pitched on. This is done, firft by driv- 
¢ 
* The Sea Beaver (as it is called) Sp. of this work, muft not be confounded with 
this, 
O 2 ing 
SAGACITY. 
DWELLINGS. 
Lapoxe. 
Dams. 
